Exchange Student
by Kiwi Lee Scipio
Summary: Hey Odd, it's your Aunt Maggie, I'm just calling to let you know that I'll be coming over to Kadic next week. I signed up with an exchange program and, who knew it, my first trip will be to your school. A girl from New Mexico is coming up here before we head out to France. Can't wait to see you. AN: Being re-written, expected date of posting new story to be some time in the summer?
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Saturday

"Hey Odd, we were wondering if we could interview you for the next issue of The Kadic News." Millie said as she and Tamiya jumped in front of Odd to stop him and his friends. "We heard your Aunt-Maggie Stone-was coming to Kadic with an exchange student, is that right?"

Odd looked at Tamiya, than to Millie, not surprised news had reached the two. "Ya, April's going to be here tomorrow, you can talk to her then."

"Ya, we will, but we were wondering if you knew where she was from. We know she's not from Canada, even though that's where she'll be picked up for the plane trip here." Millie asked.

"I think she's from New Mexico." Odd said, trying to remember.

"Come on Odd, we've got to get going." Ulrich said, poking his friend in the shoulder. "You can't be in the spot light for too long."

Odd looked at Ulrich and Jérémie before shrugging and looking back at Millie and Tamiya. "Sorry, they're right. April'll be here tomorrow, so talk to her."

"Thanks Odd." Tamiya said, turning off her camera.

The two girls walked away, leaving Jérémie and Ulrich confused. "You're aunts coming? Here?" Ulrich asked.

"Ya, why?"

"What side of your family?" Jérémie asked.

"My mom's side. Maggie's mom's siste..." Then it hit Odd, "Zut! And the same person who's supposed to be Aélita's mom!"

"Come on, we've got to tell her." Ulrich said, racing towards where Aélita and Yumi were waiting for them.

-.-.-.-

"Yumi, how do you know if someone likes you?" Aélita asked as they sat by the drink machines, waiting for the guys.

"There's lots of signs, why?" Yumi asked, sipping at her cola.

"Well, I used to think Jérémie liked me, but now that I'm here on earth instead of on Lyoko all the time, he doesn't seem to care about me anymore. Not like he used to." Aélita said, looking down at her cocoa.

"I know he does still love you, Jérémie's just not one of those people that know how to show it." Yumi said. "Remember your first night here? Jérémie walked you to my place."

"Ya, I remember, but that was...well, I kissed _his_ cheek, he has never kissed me." Aélita said, sounding disappointed. "I was able to tell which Jérémie was the real Jérémie because Xana kissed me; Jérémie would never have kissed me, not like that."

"You never know." Yumi said with a smile. "Ulrich told me that Jérémie talks about you in his sleep."

"Hey, guys at three o'clock." Aélita said, stopping their conversation.

Yumi looked up at them and saw their faces. "What's up?"

"Aélita's supposed mother's what's up." Ulrich said, stopping with Odd right behind him, and Jérémie not that far behind.

"My aunt's coming tomorrow." Odd said. "The same person who's supposed to be Aélita's mother."

"What type of person is your aunt?" Yumi asked, still surprisingly cool, unlike the rest of the group.

"She's not the normal type of person," Odd said," but what does that have to do with anything?"

"A lot. Would she follow a lie if she was told about it?" Yumi asked.

"I don't know." Odd said, thinking. "She did play along when I was about to get in trouble with my mother. And she _does_ know about Kiwi."

"Well, why not calling her and asking her to pretend Aélita _is_ her actual daughter." Yumi said. "As long as her real child isn't coming."

"I don't know if Leslie's coming or not." Odd admitted. "She's not really the type of person who likes to travel."

"Well, call her." Yumi said before sipping her cola. "But I wouldn't recommend here. Jim's not that far away." She pointed her can towards the park. Odd, Ulrich, and Jérémie turned so that they saw the gym teacher.

"Yumi, you're a genius." Ulrich said, smiling.

Yumi smiled back before drinking again.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"Hey Maggie, it's Odd." Odd said into his cell. He was sitting on his bed, in front of him; Ulrich was getting ready for bed.

"Odd? S'up kiddo?" Maggie's voice asked.

"I was, that is, we were wondering if you could help us keep a little secret here." Odd started to explain.

"Sure, what is it?"

"There's a girl here, one of my friends, her name's Aélita, she's an orphan but wanted to go to school here. Another one of my friends was able to set it up where he was paying for her schooling, but we kinda told them that you and Xavier were her parents."

"So you want me to keep on pretending, non?" Maggie asked, laughter in her voice. "Sure, I'll play along."

"Yes? Thanks!"

"What, you didn't think I would help you out?"

"I didn't know. You're not all that predictable, you know." Odd said.

"Anything else before I go back to sleep?" Maggie asked. "We're here, waiting on the plane to get there right now."

"Oh, sure, sorry." Odd said, smiling. "Night."

"Night Odd."

Odd turned off his cell and smiled at Ulrich, who was standing in only his boxers, his undershirt in his hand.

"So, she agreed to it?" Ulrich asked.

"Yap." Odd said, smiling as he dialed another number. "I'll call Aélita and tell her the good news."

"That'll calm both of their minds." Ulrich said, putting on his undershirt. He grabbed his stomach as if it had all of a sudden started to hurt.

"Hey Aélita, she said yes." Odd said, watching Ulrich sit down on his bed.

-.-.-.-

"You serious?" Aélita asked, looking up from Jérémie's laptop to her friend in the room. "She said yes!"

"Thank goodness." Jérémie said.

Aélita hung up and looked at Jérémie, sitting at his computer in his pjs. "At least that's covered. But what if she asks why we told them I was _her_ daughter?"

"When she sees you're hair color, they'll understand." Jérémie said, turning towards Aélita.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Aélita asked, putting her hands on her hips.

"Uh, s-sorry Aélita." Jérémie said, scratching his neck. "I didn't mean..."

Aélita smiled, putting her hands back on the keyboard of the laptop. "It's ok. I knew what you meant."

A moment past between the two before Aélita said, "Jérémie, do you still like me?"

"What do you mean? Of course I still like you." Jérémie said, getting out of his chair. He moved over to Aélita, who had looked down at the laptop. "Why do you ask that?"

"Well, after I got out of Lyoko, you...you never spend any time with me. The only way we spend time with each other is when we're working on Lyoko." Aélita said, afraid she might start to cry.

Jérémie put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer to him. "I'm so sorry, Aélita." Jérémie said, putting his chin on Aélita's head. He breathed in her sweet scent and remembered her first night on earth. He let go and looked her in the eyes to ask, "Do you wanna go for a walk?"

Aélita smiled as she moved the laptop off of her lap. "Sure Jérémie."

Jérémie stood up and took her hand, leading her off of his bed and out into the hallway. The two looked around, not taking their hands apart from the other's hand and kept an eye out for Jim.

They made it out of the dormitory, running out of the door as fast as they could.

Jérémie slowed down, his hand still in Aélita to let her know to slow down as well. They walked on the walkway threw the park, hand in hand. The pair in their pajamas.

"I know that I haven't spent much time with you lately, and I'm sorry." Jérémie said.

"It's ok Jérémie; I know you've been working with the sector 5 access." Aélita said, squeezing his hand.

"But you're right." Jérémie said, stopping. He grabbed her other hand and held it tight, looking at her jade green eyes. "I've wish I could spend more of my time with you, and after I get that passage way, I can. That is, if you want to."

"You know I want to." Aélita said, smiling. "You remember what I said when I was stuck on Lyoko?"

"I remember a lot from when you were on Lyoko." Jérémie said, his mind going back to when he almost lost her.

Aélita took her right hand out of Jérémie's hand and put it on his face, taking him by surprise. "I love you Jérémie." Aélita said before leaning towards him, her eyes closed.

Jérémie closed his eyes, moving his lips and lead towards Aélita.

They met in the middle and kissed, Aélita moving her hands to Jérémie's neck and pulled him closer as she kissed him with passion.

Jérémie moved his hands to Aélita's waist, holding her closer to him.

They stood like that for what could've been forever for as far as they know.

SNAP!

Aélita broke apart from Jérémie, their face's full of surprised.

"Come on!" Aélita hissed to Jérémie, grabbing his hand and pulling him into the woods of the park.

They dropped behind a bush and turned so they could see what had made the noise.

Not but a meter away from where they had been standing was Jim, shining a flash light around, looking for them.

"Is anybody there!?" Jim asked, scanning around for any movement.

Jérémie bit his bottom lip as he waited for Jim to turn around and go back into the building.

Jim shined the flash light in their direction, scanning over them, only to flash it back onto their bush.

Aélita held her breath as Jim headed over to their bush.

"JIM! What are you doing?" Delmas' voice called to the gym teacher.

Jim turned around, shining the flash light straight into his boss's eyes. Jim lowered the light, saying, "Sorry sir, I thought I saw somebody."

"I really doubt somebody would be out at this time of night." Delmas said, crossing his arms over his chest. "And I need your help. Apparently Gaston forgot to check the allergy list and put shell fish in the dinner crepes."

"Ewww." Jim said as he made a face. "Don't tell me, Ulrich's throwing up?"

Delmas nodded his head.

"At least it's not like some of the reactions I've seen to shell fish when I worked at the Medical Researchers' Institute in New Mexico." Jim said as he and Delmas went back to the dormitory.

"You worked in a medical researching center?" Delmas asked.

"Yes, but I'd rather not talk about it."

As soon as they were out of ear shot, Aélita and Jérémie stood up.

"I hope Ulrich's ok." Aélita said.

"If it's anything like the last time he had shell fish, it won't be pretty." Jérémie said, putting his hand back in Aélita. "Come on, we might as well see what we can do to help him."

-.-.-.-

"How's he doing?" Aélita asked Odd as Jérémie and she walked over to Odd, who was standing in the hallway by the bathroom door.

"He's better than earlier." Odd said. "He's just sitting next to the toilet."

"I have to ask. How many times did it take him to get to the bathroom?" Jérémie asked.

"Only three." Odd said, sounding surprised. "Though I had to hide Kiwi from Jim."

"Poor Ulrich." Aélita said.

"I'll go and check on him." Jérémie said, walking into the bathroom. "Hey Ulrich, you ok?"

"Ugh, better, but I still hate shell fish." Ulrich said, his voice coming from a stall.

Jérémie followed his friend's voice to an opened stall and saw Ulrich sitting on the floor, his head close to the toilet bowl. "I think it's more of shell fish doesn't like you." Jérémie said, leaning against the wall to the stall. "Does Yumi know?"

"I don't think so, but don't call her right now." Ulrich said. "Ug, everything tastes worst the second time around."

"Don't have to tell me." Jérémie said.

Ulrich started to cough, turning so that his head was over the toilet bowl.

Jérémie turned his head so that he wouldn't see his friend throw up.

When Ulrich had finished, Jérémie turned his head back to look at his friend. Ulrich ripped off a piece of toilet paper to wipe his mouth. He threw in the paper and flushed the toilet, not bothering to get up off the floor.

"You'd think I'd run out of stuff to throw up by now." Ulrich said, looking up at his friend.

"Is anybody else in there but you two?" Aélita's voice called from the door.

Jérémie looked around and said, "No, we're the only ones in here."

Aélita walked in with a glass in one hand and a blue bowl with a spoon sticking out of it.

"What is that?" Ulrich asked as he watched her walk into the bathroom.

"It's something I read a while back while I was studying Earth." Aélita explained, handing the bowl and spoon to Jérémie.

Aélita walked over to the sink and filled up the glass as Jérémie looked in the bowl, seeing a white powder. "Baking soda?"

"Yes, it calms down stomachs." Aélita said, walking back over to Ulrich and Jérémie. "I know it sounds weird, and tastes even weirder, but it works."

"If it helps me to stop throwing up, I'll take it." Ulrich said. "Anything's better than shell fish the second time around."

Jérémie handed the bowl to Ulrich and he ate the small amount of baking soda. He shook his head at the sharp taste before grabbing the glass Aélita had gotten and drunk it all down.

"It's always the stuff that tastes terrible that actually works." Ulrich said, to help himself feel better.

"I better get out of here before Jim finds out I'm in the boys' restroom." Aélita said, picking up the bowl and cup. "He'd have a cow."

"Hey, leave the cup please." Ulrich said, looking up at her.

"Sure." Aélita said, putting it back on the floor next to him.

"Thanks Aélita." Ulrich said as she walked out of the bathroom. She went down the hallway and into Odd's bedroom, bowl still in hand, and walked into her friend's room.

"Is he any better?" Odd asked, Kiwi bringing him the toy ball back to his master.

"Ya, I gave him something that might help his stomach calm down." Aélita said, sitting on Odd's bed. "Jérémie's staying with him."

"Oh, ok." Odd said, his face still a little down.

"You ok? You look sad." Aélita said, looking at his face.

"Oh, it's just a letter I got a while back. It's been bugging me." Odd said, tossing the ball again for Kiwi.

"What did it say?"

"I'll get it and you can read it for yourself." Odd said, getting up. He knelt down at the foot end of his bed and slid open the draw underneath his bed to reveal a whole boat load of random objects, between mice and other toys for Kiwi to a Transformer action figure. Odd picked out an envelope and read who it was from before handing it to Aélita.

Aélita sat down her bowl on the floor and opened the letter. It read;

Dear Odd,

I don't mean to be too frank but I don't have long to write. We can't see each other anymore. I know this is sudden, but I just can't see you anymore. It has nothing to do with the fact that I haven't seen you since the party at Yumi's house, but that I feel like I have my heart split between two people and I can stand it anymore. I've got to do what I feel is right. I do still love you Odd. You will always be that one spot I love, but things are just getting too complicated.

With Love

Your Samantha

"I'm so sorry Odd." Aélita said, folding up the letter and giving it back to Odd.

"Thanks." Odd said, taking the letter back. He held it in his hand for a moment before laying it beside him.

The two sat in silence for a moment before they were startled by the door opening.

They looked up and saw Ulrich and Jérémie walking in.

"You feeling any better?" Odd asked as Ulrich sat down on his bed.

"A lot better." Ulrich looked to Aélita and said, "Thanks to you and your baking soda."

Aélita smiled, glad he was feeling better.

Jérémie yawned before saying, "Well, I'm going to bed. Aélita?"

Aélita looked up at him and smiled even bigger, remembering what they were doing before hearing about Ulrich. "Ya, I should be going to bed, too."

Aélita picked up her bowl and stood up. Ulrich handed her the glass and the two headed out of the room.

"Good night." Odd said, smiling at the two leaving.

"Good night." Aélita said, shutting the door behind her.

Aélita and Jérémie walked over to the stairs to head down to their rooms.

"How did the baking soda work?" Jérémie asked, faintly remember hearing something about it.

" _Baking soda_ eats at whatever's causing them to get sick, but what I used was just physiological." Aélita said, pointing to her head.

"Huh?"

"I couldn't find any baking soda so I mixed salt with sugar. I guessed he had never had baking soda by itself before and just told him it was baking soda." Aélita explained as she pushed open the door to their floor.

"Oh, a placebo."

Aélita nodded her head, turning towards her door. "Night Jérémie."

"Good night Aélita." Jérémie said, leaning towards her and kissing her cheek.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Sunday

Knock Knock

"Hey Odd, can we come in?" a female voice asked from the hallway.

"Odd, it's for you!" Ulrich said, rolling over in his bed.

"Hey Kiddo, you awake in there?" the voice asked, trying the door handle and found it unlocked.

Maggie opened the door only to find that Ulrich was also in the room.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Maggie said as Ulrich sat up, his brown hair sticking in all directions. "Odd didn't tell me he had a roommate."

"It's ok." Ulrich said, yawning. He looked at Odd's Aunt and saw why they had used her as Aélita's mother. She had hair that was just a tone darker than Aélita's own hair.

Maggie walked in, a brown haired girl behind her, and went over to the heap of blankets on Odd's bed. "Odd, wake up!"

"It's Sunday!" Odd said, turning around so that he was facing the wall.

"Oh well!" Maggie said, going over to his wardrobe and opening a draw. "I'll put Kiwi on you."

"I'M UP!" Odd said, sitting up fast.

Ulrich and the girl laughed as Kiwi jumped up and went straight over to Odd to lick his face.

Ulrich looked at the brown haired girl and smiled, saying, "Hey, I'm Ulrich."

He held out his hand and she took it, nodding her head. "My name is April Morgan."

"Well, welcome to France, April." Ulrich said as they let go. "The a crazed one is Odd."

April looked at him, questioningly. "Sorry, you speak fast, very fast*."

"Bad habit." Ulrich said, talking slower. "Welcome. The crazy one is Odd."

April smiled, understanding. "It goes with his name, no?"

"Yes it does." Ulrich said, smiling.

"Is today the only day you get off of school?" April asked.

"Yeah. I mean, on Saturdays and Wednesdays we have half days." Ulrich said.

"Ok." April said. "We have Saturdays and Sundays off."

"So where's my daughter?" Maggie asked as Odd stood up, straightening his shorts that had twisted around in his sleep.

"She's probably downstairs in Jérémie's room, working on a computer program." Odd said.

"In Jérémie's room?" Maggie asked.

"Don't worry. They like each other but won't tell each other." Odd said, knowing what she was thinking. He looked at Ulrich as he continued, "Like another two-some I know."

"Ha ha ha, very funny." Ulrich said, throwing off his blankets and standing up.

"Come on, get dressed so I can meet my daughter." Maggie said.

"Shhuuu." Odd said, his eyes going to April.

"Do not worry. I know about Aélita. I will not give away your secret." April said.

-.-.-.-

"I wonder when Maggie's going to get here." Aélita said as she waited for Jérémie to finish changing clothes. She was lying on Jérémie's bed, her head on his pillow so that she was looking straight at the wall. Behind her, Jérémie was zipping up his pants.

"All I know is sometime today." Jérémie said, grabbing his shirt. He put it on and turned to grab his glasses. "You can get up now."

Aélita sat up at looked towards Jérémie as he looked around for his shoes. He opened his wardrobe only to have a pile of junk fall out.

"Need to clean your room again, huh?" Aélita asked.

"After Xana." Jérémie said, skimming the pile for his blue shoes.

Aélita knelt down on the floor and pulled out something black. "Why do you have Yumi's shoes in your wardrobe?"

Jérémie looked up as he found his own shoes. "Oh, Yumi asked me to keep an extra pair of shoes in here for her."

"Why?" Aélita asked.

"I don't really know." Jérémie admitted.

"I guess I really can't say anything." Aélita said, standing up and helping him put the stuff back in his wardrobe. "She asked me to keep an extra set of her clothes in my room."

"Hey Einstein." Odd said as he opened the door.

Aélita and Jérémie looked towards the door to see Odd and Ulrich walk in. Behind them was a woman with pink hair and a girl with brown hair.

"Hey Ulrich, you feeling any better?" Aélita said, putting a box inside the wardrobe.

"A lot better, thanks to you." Ulrich said.

"You were sick?" April asked, her hand covering her mouth.

"Nothing you could catch." Ulrich explained. "Shell fish allergy."

April nodded her head, taking her hand away from her mouth.

Jérémie looked at April and Maggie and asked, "Sorry, who are you?"

"I'm Odd's aunt Maggie and this is April. She's from New Mexico." Maggie said, smiling.

"New Mexico?" Aélita asked. "Where in New Mexico?"

"I am from Albuquerque. It is almost in the center." April replied.

"But Maggie, this is Aélita." Odd said, motioning to Aélita. "Aélita, your mother."

Aélita looked at Maggie's hair and understood why they could be believed to be mother and daughter.

"If I was not told the truth, I would believe you two were, truly, mother and daughter." April said, smiling.

"You won't tell, no?" Jérémie asked April.

"Of course, no!" April said, shaking her head.

"Good." Jérémie said.

"I'm hungry." Odd said as his stomach started to alert everyone.

"Good, because I wanted you to help me show April some of France." Maggie said. She looked at April and asked, "When do you have to go back to the US?"

"When do I have to go back?" April asked, making sure she understood Maggie right.

Maggie nodded her head.

"I have to go back to New Mexico in one week." April said.

"So who's up for some Presto Burger?" Maggie asked everyone.

"Yes!" Odd said, glad to eat soon.

"I've got to stay here and work on my computer." Jérémie said, sitting down at his computer.

"Come on Jérémie." Aélita said, putting her hands on his shoulders. "Get out and do something new, like hang out with an American."

April smiled at the thought that hanging out with her could be a novelty.

Jérémie smiled and looked up at Aélita, looking into her jade green eyes. "Alright."

"What is this Presto Burger?" April asked as Jérémie stood up.

"It's the best place to get burgers on this side of the river." Odd said.

*If you've watched the French version of Code Lyoko, he talks really fast. For a non-native of French, it's sometimes hard to understand him.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

"This is good!" April said after taking a bite out of her deluxe presto burger that Odd had picked out for her.

"Do you have anything like this back where you're from?" Ulrich asked, sitting next to her at the round booth they were at.

"We have a place called Roi de Burger*, but that is nothing like this." April said.

"I think there's one down the road a little ways." Odd said. "But Presto Burger's my favorite."

"I see why." April said, covering her mouth as she still had food in it.

"Hey Aélita, since I'm your mother for a week, I think I should know something about you." Maggie said.

"Ok, what do you want to know?" Aélita asked before taking a sip of her drink.

"Well, I'm guessing your favorite color is pink, no?"

Aélita nodded her head.

"Do you have a boyfriend?" Maggie asked.

"No." Aélita answered simply.

"I know someone who wants to be her boyfriend." Ulrich said.

"Who?"

"I promised him I wouldn't tell." Ulrich said, drinking his drink.

"Do you have a learner's permit?" Maggie asked Aélita, curious about what Ulrich said, but didn't press it.

"No, I haven't gotten to the DMV yet." Aélita admitted.

Odd looked up at the clock on the wall and said, "Oh no! We've got to be back at Kadic."

"Why?" Maggie asked, looking at April to see that she had just finished her burger.

"We all ended up getting detention for being late to class." Jérémie said as he slid out of the booth.

"All of you?" Maggie asked as Aélita got up with Odd right behind her.

"Ya, we lost track of time." Ulrich said, getting out behind Odd.

"Well, it was my fault for you being late this time, so whoever's in charge of detention will have to talk to me if they get mad." Maggie said as April followed Ulrich out.

-.-.-.-

"I should give you all another two hours detention for being late!" Jim's voice shouted as Odd opened the library's doors.

The six walked into the library and saw Jim at the head desk with Yumi sitting at the long table.

"Sir, it was my fault." Maggie said, walking straight over to Jim. "I wanted to talk to my daughter and my nephew."

"May I ask who you are?" Jim asked. Before Maggie had a chance to answer, he looked towards Odd, Ulrich, Aélita, and Jérémie and ordered, "Over to the table, all of you. No two people can sit next to another, you know the drill."

Maggie waited for Jim to look back at her before saying, "My name's Maggie Stone."

"I'm sorry, Mrs. Stone." Jim said. He looked down at April and froze. April looked at him with about the same expression. "April?"

April nodded her head, still not saying a word.

"Now it's my turn to be confused." Maggie said, surprised. "How do you know April?"

April turned to Maggie and said, "James is my father."

*English will be put in French, since they're all actually speaking French to begin with. I figured that would be the best way to show the differences of language.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

"Mrs. Stone, could you make sure everyone in here stays quiet?" Jim asked Maggie, still in a daze.

"Sure, no problem." Maggie said.

"Thank you." Jim said, taking April outside and shutting the door.

Maggie waited a second before going over to the door and pressing her ear to it, motioning with her hand for everyone to be quiet.

"April, what are you doing here?" Jim asked, using a ruff English.

"I'm an exchange student." April said. "I should ask you what you're doing here."

"I work here." Jim explained. "I'm the gym teacher."

"Isn't that funny? Jim the gym teacher." April said, smirking.

"This is important. If your mother finds out that you spent a week with me, she'll kill me, or at least get the courts on me." Jim said.

"Then we just won't tell her." April said. "It's as simple as that. Anyway, you're out of American derestriction."

"You've been watching too many detective shows again, haven't you? But what about Mrs. Stone?" Jim asked, pointing to the doors to the library.

"If I asked her, she wouldn't tell mom either." April said.

"If you say so." Jim said, straightening up. He headed straight for the door and pushed it open, only to find he had bumped it into Maggie's head. "Are you ok?"

Maggie smiled as she rubbed her head. "I'm fine, thanks."

Jim smiled, knowing she had been listening in on their conversation, before looking over at Yumi and Jérémie, who were mouthing something. "Hey, no talking! You're in detention!"

Yumi shut her mouth, annoyed that she couldn't finish her question to Jérémie. She looked at him and noticed he guessed the rest of her question and nodded his head just slightly.

Yumi blinked her eyes, letting him know she understood and went back to reading her text book.

"How long is their detention?" Maggie asked.

"Two hours." Jim answered.

"Well, let's go unpack." Maggie said, looking down at April.

-.-.-.-

"Are you ok?" Maggie asked as the two walked over to the dormitory where they were staying for the week.

"Yes, why do you ask?" April asked.

"Well, if I ran into my father out of nowhere, I would be kind of flustered."

"Flustered?"

"Confused."

"I do not know what I am." April admitted.

-.-.-.-

Odd stretched as the five walked out of the library. "I'm going to be good at sleeping with my eyes open soon."

"I figured you would've already known how." Yumi said, smiling.

"Where's Mom and April?" Aélita said, trying to remember to say Mom instead of Maggie.

"Odd!" April called as she walked over, ear buds in her ears.

"Hey April." Odd said. "This is Yumi."

"The Japanese?" April guessed.

"Yes!" Yumi said, surprised someone got it right.

"I have tried to learn the language, but have only learned some in a song." April said, showing Yumi her MP-3.

"Fukai Mori, I haven't heard that song in ages." Yumi said, smiling.

"Here." April handed Yumi one of the buds and they listened to the song.

"What other languages do you have on there?" Odd asked.

"The German, the French, the English of course, the Japanese, the Chinese, the Swedish, the Hebrew, the Dutch, and I think that is all. Oh, and the Romanian." April said, trying to remember.

"Have you heard of the Subdigitals?" Ulrich asked.

"With Nico, Chris, and Ben?"

Ulrich nodded his head, smiling.

"I love them! I have their English and French CDs."

"They have an English CD?" Aélita asked.

"And, I think, a Spanish one, but I do not really care for the language, so I did not get it."

"Hey, I've got to go and run a program." Jérémie said, trying to think of a way to get away.

"Uh, sure Jérémie." Aélita said, waving to him as they walked over to a bench in the court yard.

"Is he alright?" April asked, watching Jérémie walk off to the dorms. "He always wants to be on his computer."

"That's just Einstein." Odd said.

"Einstein?" April asked, wondering why they called him that. "A nickname?"

"Ya. Because he's smart." Ulrich said.

April turned off her MP-3 and got the ear bud back from Yumi so she could put it in her pocket. "Aélita, I think you should check on your friend. I think he feels alone." April looked up at Aélita as April sat down.

"I think you're right." Aélita said. "Thanks." Aélita turned around and walked over to the dorms.

"Jérémie is not a person of people is he?" April asked.

"I don't think he is." Yumi said. "We all became his friend on accident and didn't really know him before the incident. Well, all but Ulrich."

"Should I ask about the incident?" April offered.

"Probably not." Odd said, shaking his head. "Hey, you wanna play Roi?"

"Sure, how do you play?" April asked.

"It's easy, just got to find a deck of cards." Ulrich said.

"I have some in my room." April offered. She looked up and saw storm clouds. "I think it was supposed to rain today too. We can play Roi in my room."

"Lead the way!" Yumi said as the rain clouds dropped, soaking them before they made it inside.

"At least you do not have to worry about the rains flooding right now, no?" April asked as she led them down the first floor hallway.

"Not normally." Ulrich said.

"I've never seen any of the rooms down here." Yumi said.

"They are like apartments." April said. She looked up at the number on the door and pulled out her key. She opened the door and said "And here is the one I share with Maggie."

April hit the light-switch just inside and a small hallway appeared. She led them inside to turn into another part of a hallway. To her right was a bed room and to her left was a bathroom. "We can play on the island." April said, motioning over to where there was a kitchen. Separating it from the living room was an island with four stools. April went into the bed room they had past as Odd, Ulrich, and Yumi went over to the island and pulled the stools around so that the four would be facing each other.

As Odd was pulling two chairs into the kitchen area, he noticed a fridge, as tall as he was. "Hey April, is there any food in your fridge?"

"What is a fridge?" April asked as she walked out of her room and over to the island. In her hand was a deck of cards.

"A refrigerator." Yumi said.

"Ya there is food inside." April said as she went over to Odd's side of the island. "You can get us some Ho Hos, please?"

Odd opened the fridge, trying to remember what a Ho Hos was. Not getting anywhere, even with looking inside, he turned and asked as she sat the cards down, "What's a Ho Hos?"

"I was about to ask the same thing." Ulrich asked.

"It is a little chocolate cake with a crème filling." April said as she went over to behind Odd. "There they are!"

Odd moved out of the way so that she could get to the little cakes. "These." She pulled out four individually wrapped cup cakes with a white swirly line on the top.

April handed them to her new friends as she and Odd sat back down at the island. She unwrapped hers and started to eat as she asked, "Ok, how do you play this Roi game?"

"Well, since this is your first time, we won't worry about the past king or queen or loser." Yumi started as she began to shuffle the cards.

"Who are they?"

"The King was the last winner, moi!" Odd explained. "Queen is whoever was in second place, and the loser is the person who lost last game."

"So it's like Monopoly were it never ends, no?" April asked.

"Kind of." Ulrich said. "Now, three is the lowest and two is the highest." April gave him a weird face before he continued. "I know, weird."

Yumi finished dealing out the deck, leaving no card to be alone. "It's easier if you put your cards in order, but suit doesn't matter." She picked up her own deck and started to do that herself. "When you put down cards, you have to put down a card with a higher value. Like, if I put down a jack, than you have to put down either another jack or something higher like a king or two. Whoever puts down the last card that nobody can play on, like somebody put down a two and nobody can put another two on top, than the person who put down the two puts aside the deck and starts another round. Whoever losses all of their cards first, is Roi."

"Oh, it is like the japanese game "Rich man, Poor man", no?" April asked.

"Just a different name." Yumi said, nodding her head. "I didn't figure you would know that name for it."

"Fruba. But it has been a while since I last played it." April said, shrugging her shoulders as she looked down at her cards to put them in order. "Cool, let's play." April said, finishing with putting her cards in order.

"Since you dealt, I get to go first!" Odd said, pulling out a set of three tens.

"Now you have to put down a set of three of a card with a higher value of ten." Ulrich explained.

"Ok, how about this?" April asked as she put down three kings.

"Nice." Ulrich said as he put down three aces.

"Skip." Yumi said. She looked at April and explained. "I don't have anything that high with three of."

"Right."

"Skip." Odd said, laying his cards face down on the table.

"How about this?" April asked as she put down three twos.

"You won that round, but you won't win the game!" Odd said as Yumi pulled the pile out of the way, over by the wall to her left.

"You get to put down the first card of the next round." Ulrich said.

April looked at her deck and pulled out two threes. The game went on like this in till April had only one card and Odd had three. Yumi and Ulrich both had four.

Ulrich put down a seven and looked at Yumi to see her put down an eight. Odd played a queen, hoping April's last card wasn't a king.

"Sorry Odd." April said as she laid down the missing king. "I just took your title!"

"Come on, who get's queen?" Odd asked as Ulrich skipped.

"Skip." Yumi said.

"Ha!" Odd said, laying down the last ace.

"So you _are_ a girl." April said, laughter in her voice.

"Some would say." Ulrich said.

"What's that supposed to mean?!" Odd asked as Ulrich and Yumi battled it out to see who was the Loser.

"Well, you do have a high pitched voice." Yumi said as she laid down her last card, making Ulrich Loser.

"And you wear purple." April said, looking at him. "In America, that means you are gay."

"Can't a guy wear purple if he wants to?" Odd asked, sounding mad.

"Hey, I know that Americans are stupid." April said. "Just because I wear black, people ask if I am emo." April stood up and collected all the trash, throwing it into the trash can under the counter. "They are all about the color of your clothes. If you wear red, you are part of the Bloods; blue, than you are a Crips; white, than you are rich; green, you are an Army person; and the worst part is that they do not care if you really are whatever, they will just think it is so."

"You're not the normal 'Red, white, and blue American' are you?" Ulrich asked.

April sat back down next to Odd and shook her head. "I have a Japanese stuffed cat, a French Christmas pillow, and a Chinese lucky poster in my room back in America. You think whatever you want."

Yumi put the cards back in the box, seeing they weren't going to play anything else, as a crack of thunder went through out the apartment. "Are you going to be going to classes this week?" Yumi asked, sliding the cards over to her.

"Yes, my teachers next year are going to count this to my grades." April said. "I already get an A for my first semester in my French class for spending a week here."

"Isn't that an easy grade?" Odd asked, smiling.

"I hope Jérémie is alright." April said, remembering before the storm hit.

"We'll find out soon." Odd said, looking up at the clock. "It's lunch time!"

"Already, my day has been so confused." April said, getting up and walking to her room to put away the cards.

"What do you mean?" Yumi asked as she, Odd, and Ulrich followed her to the door.

"Time zone changes." April said, walking out of the room.

"I know how that is." Odd said. "Every time I go to see my grandma."

"Where does she live, your grandma?" April asked as the four started out to the hallway.

"New Zealand." Odd explained.

April locked the door and turned towards her new friends. "Should not we tell Aélita and Jérémie?"

"I'll go up and get them." Yumi said as she turned to go up the stairs.

"See you Yumi." Ulrich said as they spit.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

"Jérémie, Aélita, lunch is about to be served." Yumi said as she walked into Jérémie's room. "Huh?"

Inside she found that neither of her friends were in there. Yumi pulled out her cell and called Jérémie.

"Yumi?" Jérémie's voice asked from the other end.

"Hey, where are you?" Yumi asked, walking out of his room.

"At the lunch room waiting for you and the others." Jérémie said.

"Oh, ok." Yumi said. "See ya there."

Yumi hung up and was about to walk away from Jérémie's room when an alarm got her attention. "What?" Yumi asked as she walked back into the room. She went over to Jérémie's desk and saw that a tower was activated. She looked over to where the double alarm sound was coming from and noticed Jérémie didn't have his laptop with him. "Shoot, tower's activated." She pulled out her cell and called Jérémie back again.

-.-.-.-

"Lady's first." Odd said, opening the door for April.

"Thanks." April said as she ran inside, trying to stay dry but having no luck.

Ulrich and Odd walked in only to have April fall onto them, slipping on the floor.

"Are you ok!?" Ulrich asked, helping her up.

"Yes, I am fine." April said, trying to stand up. "My flip flops get slippery when they are wet." She took another step and fell into Odd's arms. "Ok, that is it." She knelt down and picked up her flip flops and stood up.

Odd snickered at her, only to stop suddenly as April turned around to face him. "You do not say a word, kapeash!"

"Kapeash." Odd said, putting up his hands.

Behind the three, over at a table, Jérémie sat with Aélita, talking to Yumi on the phone.

"I'll get Ulrich and Odd and we'll be on our way." Jérémie said, ending the call.

"There they are." Aélita said, pointing behind Jérémie. Jérémie turned around just in time to see a specter drip out from the ceiling and aimed for April.

"APRIL!" Jérémie cried as he jumped out of his chair and tried to make it over to them before Xana could get to her.

April looked up at Jérémie to see that his gaze was above her. She looked up, only to have time to drop her flip flops and scream before the specter took over her body.

Ulrich looked up from April, who was fighting Xana as he took over her body, and guessed, "Xana?"

"He's activated a tower." Aélita explained.

"Huh?!" Odd exclaimed as April ran outside, screaming as Xana fought to take her over. April fell to the ground, still screaming.

"I've got April. You go and deactivate that tower!" Odd said, ready for her to attack him as she stopped screaming and was fully under Xana's control.

Ulrich nodded his head and ran out the door into the storm with Aélita, Yumi, and Jérémie.

April looked up, her pupils covered by the eye of Xana. She looked up at Odd, her hair in her mouth, and aimed her hand at Odd. "ARRR!" April growled as she shot him backwards into the cafeteria.

Screams were covering the cafeteria as the kids started to run. April stood up and walked over to Odd inside the cafeteria.

Odd got up and looked at the American before jumping up and tackling her down to the ground, trying to keep her hands underneath her and get her outside in the rain.

-.-.-.-

"I hope Odd can handle her." Ulrich said as they rode in the elevator to the lab.

"What do you mean? He normally can hold his own against Xana." Yumi said.

"You haven't noticed?" Aélita asked.

"What?" Yumi asked.

"He likes her." Jérémie said as the elevator stopped and the door opened. "Go to the scanner room."

"Got it, Einstein." Ulrich said. The three watched Jérémie walk over to his chair before the elevator door shut, taking them down to the scanner room.

"You're going to the ice sector." Jérémie said as the three went into scanners. "Transfer Yumi, Transfer Ulrich, Transfer Aélita, Scanner, Virtualization!"

-.-.-.-

"Look April, why don't we talk it out." Odd said as April looked up at him. "I know it'd be long distance, but still."

April growled before she used her feet and kicked Odd off of her. Odd flew backwards, crashing into the pole separating the line for food from the rest of the cafeteria.

"I'll take that as a no?" Odd guessed as he opened his eyes, feeling pain all over his back.

April jumped up and walked over to Odd. Odd looked up as she reached down and grabbed the collars of his shirts. She pulled him up and sent electricity throughout his body. She threw him over to where an upturned table was, behind was Paul, Sissi, and Theo who all ran, screaming, as Odd hit the table.

"Nice throw Xana, but I think you missed your point." Odd said as he stood up, rubbing the back of his neck. In his hand, he held a steak knife he had almost landed on the business end of. "Now try this point!"

Odd ran at April, raising the knife above his head and aiming to stab her jean belt loop into the wall behind her, only to have April reach up and stop his hand from going there and twisted him around, hurting his wrist.

"Hey, come on!" Odd said, pain going through his limb. "I wasn't going to stab you." Odd felt his hand let go of the knife, no control on Odd's part, and fall into April's hand.

April let go of Odd and pointed the knife at him.

Odd fumbled around, trying to remember which pocket he put his cell in as he back up. He pulled out his cell from his back pocket and dialed the lab.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

"Odd, is everything alright on your end?" Jérémie asked as he typed away at his computer. On the screen he could see Ulrich, Yumi, and Aélita heading straight for the tower. In front of the tower were five red triangles. "Look out, five Kankrelats heading for you at 12 o'clock."

"Thanks Jérémie." Ulrich said as he pulled out his saber from the side of his Overbike.

"Oh, everything's hunky dory over here." Odd said, trying to crack a joke. "I mean, besides the knife aimed at my head."

"Got it, Odd." Jérémie said, knowing how over dramatic Odd could be at times. "We're going as fast as we can."

"Well go faster!" Odd ordered. "A kitchen is not the place you want to get in a fight!"

"Guys, if you don't hurry it up, Odd's gonna end up as Swiss cheese." Jérémie said, ending Odd's call.

"Well, at least it's food." Yumi said. "There's those Kankrelats."

In front of them stood the five Kankrelats, ready to protect the tower.

Yumi pulled out her fan as they started to shoot, shielding herself and Aélita behind her.

"Energy Field!" Aélita cried, shooting at the lead one and killing it.

"Rrreaaaa!" Yumi cried, throwing one of her fans as she moved the Overwing to avoid a shot.

Yumi's fan cut threw two of the Kankrelats, killing them. It turned back and flew back to Yumi for her to catch it. "There you go, Ulrich. You can have the last two." Yumi said, smiling to the boy beside her.

"Oh Thank you, Yumi." Ulrich said, pretending it was a great honor and bowing to the best of his ability while driving his Overbike.

Yumi smiled as he zoomed up closer and dragged his sword on the ground, greeting the last two Kankrelats with the blade of his katana.

"The cost is clear." Jérémie said, looking at his screens. "Just watch out for the Scyphozoa. You know how much Xana loves destroying sectors."

"To bad Xana can't take a holiday." Aélita said as they flew over the purple mountain pass to the activated tower surrounded by a wall.

"Then we'd be out of a job and have nothing left to do but go to school and get good grades for once. What a bummer." Ulrich said, shaking his head.

"Ya, we all know that if you get good grades in class that Xana hasn't been activating towers." Aélita said with a smiled.

-.-.-.-

Odd looked at the knife in April's hand and slid to the right as she plunged it down.

Odd opened his eyes and saw that the knife had plunged into the dry wall, right next to the window and his head. April tried to pull out the knife, only to find she had put it in too deep.

Odd took his chances and dropped down. He pushed himself forward, in-between April's legs, and grabbed her from behind.

-.-.-.-

"And here is your tower." Yumi said as she lowered the Overwing right next to the roots of the tower.

Aélita got off and was about to go in when a wall of red stopped her in her tracks.

The three turned towards what had made the wall to see that a mega-tank had joined them.

"Jérémie, warring next time would've been nice." Ulrich said.

"What, oh sorry." Jérémie said, typing in something else.

"What are you doing over there, sleeping?" Yumi asked as she got in front of Aélita with her fans and stopped the wall before it hit Aélita. Yumi turned her head and said to Aélita, "Go! I've got it!"

Aélita nodded her head and ran for the tower, slowing down as she walked through the roots. She walked into the tower, getting to the center of the eye of Xana on the floor. She looked up as she felt the gravity slip away and shoot her upward, up to the second platform.

-.-.-.-

April turned her head all the way around so that she could see Odd, molding her body so that it could follow her head, and smiled as she sent electrical currents throughout Odd's body.

Blue/Purple electricity went up into his purple-brown eyes, electrocuting him from the inside.

-.-.-.-

Aélita landed on the platform and walked to the center, a blue screen appearing in front of her. She placed her hand on the screen for it to read, "AÉLITA".

It blinked clear before typing in "CODE".

-.-.-.-

Odd fell limp in April's arms as she continued to shoot electricity through his body, making the two start to glow brighter than the lights in the cafeteria.

-.-.-.-

"LYOKO"

Aélita looked downward as the tower's binary code changed. "Tower deactivated."

"Return to the Past NOW!" Jérémie ordered, pressing "enter".

The tower of white light came up from the holospear, taking time and the world with it. It went over the school and Odd, whose eyes were now rolled back into the top of his head as death came closer. April laid beside Odd on the cafeteria's floor, unconscious after Xana's ghost had left her.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

"Where does she live, your grandma?" April asked as the four started out to the hallway.

"New Zealand." Odd explained.

April locked the door and turned towards her new friends. "Should not we tell Aélita and Jérémie?"

"They're already there, I'm sure." Yumi said, remembering before the return to the past.

"Come on, we better hurry before they get rid of all the meat balls." Odd said, walking towards the door. "I heard it's meat balls and gravy!"

"Odd and his food." Ulrich said, shaking his head.

They walked outside and found it was pouring rain.

"Too bad I forgot an umbrella." April said.

"We'll just have to run for it." Yumi said.

"I'll race you." Odd said to Ulrich.

"You're on." Ulrich said.

April smiled as she stood next to the two as they set up for the race. "Ready? Set. GO!"

As the two boys ran towards the cafeteria, Yumi and April lagged behind, walking through the rain.

"Have you noticed how Odd's..." Yumi asked, trying to think of the right words.

"...Trying to get me to like him?" April guessed. "Ya, I have noticed. For some stupid reason, I have always had guys try to spoil me because they liked me. I do not get why, with me being ugly and all."

"Who told you 'you were ugly'!?" Yumi exclaimed, rain running down her cheeks.

"My father." April said, looking down. "I had just gotten my photo back from the professional photographer and he told me I looked ugly when I smiled so to never smile again."

"Let me see you smile." Yumi said.

April looked at her and smiled, barely showing her teeth.

"Jim was wrong. You look beautiful." Yumi said.

"What is sad though, is that my dad was my favorite parent." April admitted. "He was the first to tell me sorry for yelling at me."

"What happened?"

"I do not really remember." April said, looking down again. "I just remember him coming into my room and saying sorry. I told myself that he loved me more because I could feel him really mean the sorry. It was not just a word."

"I know what you mean." Yumi said. "I wonder why parents have to be so mean."

April's shoulders started to shake, as if she was crying, and got Yumi's attention. "Are you ok, April?" Yumi asked, putting her hand on April's shoulder. "Come on, let's get under the arcade."

Yumi led her to the classroom siding and under the awning. "Are you ok?" Yumi asked again.

"I am sorry." April said, gasping for breath as she tried to stop crying. "I hate crying."

"It's good for you from time to time." Yumi said, keeping her arm on April's shoulders. "What happened?"

"My memories have been coming back in big flashes because I had gotten in a car wreck and it damaged the part of my brain that deals with memory. And I just remembered how, I guess you would say, my whole family has been just using me." April said. Tears had stopped falling down but she was still gasping for air every now and then.

"What do you mean?" Yumi asked.

"My mother treats me like a slave, my father, well, you know him. He never stays in the same place for more than a few years, than he is gone. My grandmother was just trying to make me a bully for her own use. My grandfather threw things at me. I do not know Jim's side of the family and do not care to."

"I'm sorry." Yumi said. "Come on, maybe some lunch could help. And I'm sure Odd would love to see you."

"Same for Ulrich and you." April said, smiling as she tried to dry the tears with her shirt sleeve.

The two headed out from under the arcade and headed towards the cafeteria again. "What do you mean, Ulrich and me?"

"Oh, uh, never mind then." April said, seeing they didn't know it themselves. "Come on, let's run. It might warm us up before we go inside."

-.-.-.-

"What took so long?" Ulrich asked as Yumi and April sat down with their food.

"Girl talk." Yumi said, sitting across from Ulrich.

April looked next to her and saw Odd shoving all of his food into his mouth.

"What?" Odd asked, looking at her with gravy going down his chin.

April handed him a napkin and smiled as she said, "You eat like a pig!"

Everyone at the table stopped eating and looked at her, surprised.

"Did I say something wrong?" April asked.

"Just a note." Ulrich said, putting down his fork back on top of his food. "Don't call anyone in Europe a pig."

"Oh, I am sorry." April said. "Back in the US, it just means the person eats too much."

"That's why we call him a cow." Jérémie said, trying to lighten the mood.

"Sorry Odd." April said, looking at him.

"It's ok." Odd said. "I'm too lazy to hold a grudge."

"You have seen Ice Age!" April said, remembering the line from the first movie.

"I love that movie!" Aélita said.

"Me too!" Odd said. "Defiantly the Vultures in the second one!"

"You liked the song!" Yumi said.

"What can I say, I love food." Odd said, shrugging and scooping up more of his food to eat.

April started to look off to the right, past Aélita's head.

"What is it?" Aélita asked, turning around to look where April was looking.

"Oh, no, there's nothing that way." April said, getting Aélita to turn back around. "There's a spot on my glasses."

"So you have to follow it?" Yumi asked.

April took off her glasses and wiped off the spot on her shirt. "Uh, yes."

"Great, another ADHD person." Ulrich said, going back to his food.

"ADHD?" April asked, trying to remember what the initials stood for as she put her glasses on.

"Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder." Yumi explained.

"Oh, yes. The doctor even proved it with me." April said.

"Ulrich, dear!" Sissi's voice called over.

"Oh great." Ulrich said, sinking down in his seat.

"I did not know you had a girlfriend." April said as Sissi stopped at the edge of their table.

"She's, thankfully, _not_ my girlfriend." Ulrich said, looking at Sissi.

"My father agreed, so I can go off campus with you to the cinema tonight!" Sissi said. "We can see that new movie, Cave In."

"Sorry Sissi, he's taken." Odd said. "Tonight's the night of the All Man's Meeting."

"Not much of a club, only two members." Sissi said. "Jérémie and Ulrich, but whatever."

"Hey!" Odd exclaimed.

April put her hand on Odd's leg to stop him from anything he might do. He froze and looked at April.

"Sorry." April mumbled, taking her hand back and putting it in her lap.

Sissi rolled her eyes and looked back at Ulrich, "So, are you going to this two man club, or with moi and see Cave In?"

"I'm going to the _three_ man club, Sissi." Ulrich said, standing up for his best friend.

"You'll be sorry you didn't choose me, Ulrich dear." Sissi said as she walked away.

"Sure." Ulrich said.

"Does she always do that?" April asked.

"Almost every day." Yumi said, sounding like she hated Sissi more than Ulrich.

"Sissi's the principal's daughter so she thinks she runs the school." Aélita explained.

"There's my nephew! And my daughter!" Maggie said as she walked over and pulled a chair to sit at the end Odd and Aélita were sitting at. "Sorry I haven't been here. So what's happened?"

"We played Roi!" Odd said.

"Ya, and guess who's king right now." Ulrich said, smiling at Odd's annoyed face.

"Who?"

"April is." Yumi said.

"April beat Odd!?" Jérémie exclaimed. "Finally, someone is able to beat him."

"How long has he been King?" Maggie asked.

"Since Jérémie taught us to play the game." Aélita said.

"What is this Man's Meeting thing anyway?" Yumi asked Odd.

"Ya, this is the first I've heard of it." Jérémie said.

"Something I made up for Ulrich." Odd explained. "It never really existed."

"HOW DARE YOU!" Herve's voice yelled from behind Odd, April, and Yumi.

They turned to see Herve standing next to Nicolas with their trays in hand. "I should teach you a lesson for messing with Sissi like that!"

"Sure Herve, try." Odd said, standing up.

"What?" Herve asked, not expecting this.

"Hit me with your best punch." Odd said, spreading his arms to say that he didn't have anything up his sleeves.

"Alright!" Herve said, handing his tray to Nicolas. "You asked for it."

Herve reared back and threw all his weight into the punch. Just as he was an inch away, April flew up and grabbed the side of his neck with her hand.

Herve froze as April said, "You touch him and I will knock you unconscious here and now."

Herve, believing she would do it, dropped his hand.

April let go and let Herve walked back over to Nicolas.

"What were you going to do to him? The Vulcan neck pinch?" Jérémie asked as Odd and April sat down.

"Yes." April said as if it was surprising for him to ask. "It really works."

"I know it works, but not many people can actually do it right." Jérémie said.

"You have to remember, my father is Jim." April said.

"Point taken." Jérémie said.

"Remind me never to get in a fight with you." Odd said.

"Defiantly since I'm an archery instructor." April said.

"You are?" Ulrich asked.

"Yes. The one good think about my crazy family is that they love any type of weaponry. Whereas my father liked every type of martial art he could try to learn." April said.

"Hey, could you teach me." Odd asked. "I need to improve my aim."

"Sure. If I could find some bows and arrows." April said.

"I've got some long bows." Yumi said. "And probably some arrows."

"Cool. Thanks Yumi." April said.

"Would you mind if you added a few more to that archery class?" Jérémie asked. "We all could use the practice."

"Sure, if you want." April said.

"I see you're fitting in perfectly well here." Maggie said.

April smiled at Maggie as to say that she loved it here.

"Oh, I just realized something." Ulrich said, looking at April's French fries and stake.

"What?" April asked.

"You're not using ketchup." Ulrich said.

"Not every American likes to put ketchup on all of their food." April said, smiling. "I knew one guy who did. Even in his water and on his honey bun. I do not know how he was able to eat that."

"Sounds disgusting to me." Odd said.

"And, actually, I was afraid to even use ketchup on my fries." April admitted. "I had heard how so many chiefs were about the person adding anything to the food."

"This is cafeteria food." Aélita said. "You can do that."

"Trust me, this does not get demoted as cafeteria food." April said. "You try having either over cooked chicken or pink chicken as your lunch. Then there is the mystery meat. That thing should stay a mystery."

"Are they trying to kill you?" Jérémie asked.

"Some ask themselves the same question." April said.

-.-.-.-

"Hurry out of my mind, and you'll be out of ideas pretty soon so let us spend the afternoon in a cold Hot Air Balloon." April sang and danced to Owl City's song, unaware of Odd standing in her doorway. "Leave your jacket behind, we mount and touch the tree tops of the town. I can't wait to kiss the ground whenever we touch back down."

"Bravo." Odd said as he clapped during the brake in the song.

"AHH!" April yelled, started by Odd. Her cheeks went red with embarrassment as she regained her balance. "I hate it when people do that."

"What, startle you?" Odd asked, walking into her room.

"No, watch me dance." April said. "I cannot dance."

"Yes you can." Odd said. "You need to be one of those people who write dance steps."

"No thanks." April said, sitting on her bed. "To tell the truth, I want to be a voice actor, or, well, actress."

"We could work together." Odd said, walking over to her and took the chair from the desk to sit in. He twirled it around and sat down facing April. "I like making videos. My favorite was Natural Disaster. Sissi was in it."

"Was it good?" April asked.

"I thought so. But Sissi got mad at me for how her part came out as." Odd admitted.

"I have got to see that some time while I am here. Where are your friends?"

"Yumi went back home, I'm guessing Jérémie's with Aélita working on another computer program, and Ulrich's with Kiwi in my room. Why?" Odd asked.

"I was just wondering. You all are a close group of friends, no?"

"We are pretty close. I mean, if it came down to it, yes, I would go in front of a bullet if I needed to."

"I have got some friends like that back home too." April glanced at the clock on her desk and saw it said 23:22. "I guess we better be getting to bed. School tomorrow, who would have guessed I would be going to school during my summer break."

"Good luck at getting to sleep." Odd said as he stood up. "It's what, eight hours behind back in New Mexico, isn't it?"

"Yes, I lost a few hours of my life getting here." April joked. "Good night, Odd."

"Good night, April." Odd said before leaving her room and going over to his aunt's room to tell her good night.

Odd left their apartment and headed up to the third floor where Ulrich and Kiwi were waiting for him.

"Spent a long time just to tell April and Maggie good night." Ulrich said as Odd walked into their room.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Odd asked as he went over to his wardrobe and pulled out his pajamas.

"I mean, you like April, don't you?" Ulrich asked.

"Ah, now I know what you're up to." Odd said, closing his wardrobe and starting to change cloths. "See, if I told you that I like Jim's daughter, than word would get around to Jim and I would be dead meat."

"So you do think ahead." Ulrich said.

"Anyway, she gave me an idea for my next movie." Odd said as he pulled out a piece of paper from his desk and sat down, moving some of his clothes out of the way.

"Do I get to know what this movie will be about, or do I have to wait in till Chardon releases it?" Ulrich asked.

"No, you're in it." Odd said, writing down a script before he forgot it.

"So?" Ulrich prompted.

"Wait in till the morning."


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Monday

"Alright, it's morning." Ulrich said as he sat down at the table with his friends.

"Not till everyone gets here." Odd said, shaking his head.

"What?" Aélita asked.

"Odd had to work on something last night, but won't let me know what it was." Ulrich said.

"Was it about the voice acting thing last night?" April asked.

"I an't telling." Odd said, shoving his breakfast into his mouth.

"Ug! Did you get dressed in the dark or is this just poor American fashion you're showing everyone." Sissi asked, seeing April's outfit and stopping.

Everyone looked at April's outfit of a pink tank top that had suns on it and a blue and yellow plaid shirt used like Ulrich's style. Her pants were camo cargo and baggy.

"It is _my_ style." April said, putting her hand to her chest. "If you do not like it, than deal with it."

"Uph." Sissi snorted before walking away, Herve and Nicolas behind her.

"Nice." Jérémie said, surprised she was able to stand up against Sissi after only one day.

"You don't really care about what people thing about your outfit, do you?" Ulrich asked.

"Nope." April said, smiling. "I like to be different. It makes me who I am."

"Too bad you can't tell the world that." Aélita said.

"You French people have it made with the food." April said after taking a bite out of her breakfast.

"What's sad is that Rosa took that out of a box." Ulrich said, pointing to the crescent she had just taken a bite out of.

"Ya, but crescents are hard to get over in America." April said. "You guys get them every day."

"Odd couldn't live without his." Aélita said, smiling as the rest of their friend's laughed at that.

-.-.-.-

"Alright Odd, we're all here now." Aélita said as Yumi sat down on the bench. "Tell us what you've been _dying_ to tell us."

"The movie's called Contact." Odd said. "You remember when Sissi didn't like my last movie so much. Well, I finally came up with how the next movie would be."

"And you want us as actors?" Jérémie guessed, looking over his glasses.

"Well...voice actors." Odd said. He looked over at April and said, "I got the idea to do a cartoon last night."

" _I know!_ " Ulrich said. He looked at his friends and explained. "He was up all night working at drawing all of us in his cartoon movie."

"It's only going to be five minutes long since I've never done a cartoon before, but why not?" Odd asked, pulling out the scripts he wrote up last night.

"Can I see one of the scripts?" April asked. Odd handed her one and she skimmed through it. "Why does it have our real names in the spot of the character's name?"

"Because I use real people in my movies." Odd explained.

"Though I like the story line." April said, reading more of it. "I get possessed by some mysterious being who wants to get into contact with you guys. Than we find out that it is a ghost who has died many years before but needs help because his daughter is in danger. You all try to get me from the nurse but find that I have been taken by the ambulance because they do not know what is wrong with me. Yumi and Odd rescues me and takes me to his daughter, who does not believe a word of Ulrich and Jérémie in till I come in saying that my name is Franz Hopper." She looked up at Odd and asked, "How you are going to fit all that in five minutes. It took me longer than that to summaries it."

"Ok, so it might not stay at five minutes." Odd admitted. "So will you be the voices for it?"

A minute past as his friends thought about it and how close it was to what really happened. But since they had had to do a return to the past, no one but they even remembered any of that.

"Sure, why not." Ulrich said, holding his hand out for a script.

"I'm in." Yumi said.

Odd gave them both scripts and looked towards Jérémie and Aélita.

Aélita looked at Jérémie, wondering if he was going to do it. Jérémie gave the smallest of nods and Aélita smiled.

"We'll need microphones." Jérémie said. "I only have one."

Odd smiled as he gave them the last two in his hands.

"I have got one mike with me, and a splitter." April said.

"I'm sure the computer lab's got something we could use." Yumi said.

"Can you check now?" Odd asked as he pulled out one more script. "I need to see if Theo and Emily still want a part."

Odd grabbed his bag and headed off for Sissi's group, knowing how much Theo liked Sissi.

"I'll come with you, Yumi." Ulrich said as Yumi threw her bag back on her shoulder and stood up.

Yumi smiled at Ulrich before the two walked away to the computer lab.

"They like each other, do they not?" April asked, watching the two walk away.

"They do, but clam to be 'just friends'." Aélita said.

April smiled, understanding.

RING

"Well, we better get going to class." Jérémie said, standing up.

"Where is Odd's class?" April asked.

"Don't worry." Aélita said as the three started off towards the arcade for classes. "All of us, but Yumi, have the same classes."

"Nice." April said.

The three walked into Gilles Fumet's history and geography class room. Aélita and Jérémie sat at their usual seats in the center front row.

April sat at the desk to their right and sat her stuff down on the floor beside her.

Not long after, both Ulrich and Odd rushed in right before the bell rang for class to begin. Odd sat next to April, leaving Ulrich to sit next to Jean-Baptiste, behind Odd.

Mr. Fumet walked in, reminding Odd of what today's lesson was about.

Odd leaned over to April and whispered, "You should have it easy today. It's US geography."

"Not really." April admitted. "I do not even know all fifty states."

Odd looked at her, surprised, but couldn't say anything because Mr. Fumet started to speak.

"Today, class, we have an exchange student with us." Mr. Fumet started off. "Could she stand up and introduce herself to the class?" He motioned to the spot next to him.

April got up and went to the spot he pointed to and looked at the class of 25 students. "Uhm, G-Good morning. My name is April Morgan. I am from the US."

"Thank you Miss Morgan." Fumet said as she went back to sit down. "You should have no trouble with today's work since we will be going over the United States. We'll start today with a pop quiz to see what you learned with your homework."

Mr. Fumet past out the papers as April leaned over to get a pen out of her bag. She looked at the paper and saw that it was a blank page of the US. At the top it told them to place in the state's names.

Right off the bat, April was able to get New Mexico, Arizona, California, Washington, North and South Dakota, North and South Carolina, Virginia, Maine, DC, Hawaii, Alaska, Florida, Colorado, Texas, Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Rode Island. On the side of the paper she wrote down Mississippi, Louisiana, Iowa-

"Jérémie, is everything alright?" Mr. Fumet asked.

April looked up and saw that he had filled out every one of the states.

"Yes sir. I'm done." Jérémie said.

"Me too, sir." Aélita said.

Mr. Fumet collected their papers and said to the rest of the class. "Hurry up, only five minutes left."

"Ehr." April said under her breath.

Odd put his hand up to his head and whispered to April, "Where is Vermont?"

"Thank you." April said, trying to remember the names. She wrote it down on the side of her paper and looked around the northern end of the east coast and found the little state that reminded her of a V. She pointed to it with her pen as if to say 'here'."

April went back to trying to remember the list when she wrote down New Jersey, New York, Maryland, than stopped to draw lines to connect the words to the state too small for even one letter.

"Alright, times up." Mr. Fumet said, starting to collect the papers.

"This just proves that American schools need help." April said, looking at her paper.

"How many did you get?" Odd asked.

"28."

"Ouch." Odd said. "I got 43."

"And you never lived in America, have you?"

"The closest is Canada."

"Miss Morgan! Since you are new here, than I will give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that you didn't know there is no talking aloud in my class or any of the other classes here at Kadic." Mr. Fumet said, somehow appearing in front of the two's desk.

"Sorry sir." April said as he collected her paper.

"And you, Odd, should know the rules, you've been here long enough." Mr. Fumet said, turning his head to Odd. "I'll be lenient and only give you one hour detention today."

"Sir." April said, drawing all attention to her. "If anyone should get detention, it should be me. I said something first, almost forcing Odd to answer me."

Mr. Fumet was taken aback by her chose. "Fine than." he said to recover himself. "Then you shall join him in the library."

"Yes sir." April said, looking down at her lap.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

"Man, Mr. Fumet was harsh today." Ulrich said as the five headed over to the drink machines.

"Even with your speech and he still gave you detention!" Odd exclaimed.

"What speech?" Yumi asked as she walked over to them.

"April and Odd got in trouble in History class." Jérémie explained as he went inside the machine building and looked at the choices for drinks. He put in his euro and pressed the button for cocoa as he said, "He was going to let April go with just a warning and April tried to explain that it was her fault."

"And so he gave us both one hour detentions." Odd finished.

"At least it is not like my last time I got in trouble." April said. "I ended up with DLS."

"With what?" Aélita asked. Jérémie turned around and stood next to her, getting her attention for a moment.

"DLS, uh, In School Suspension." April explained, translating it. "It is when you are stuck in school still, just away from everyone. And the whole day in silence."

"What did you do?" Yumi asked.

"I cheated on a Bible test." April said, shrugging. "I guess one of the worst things you could cheat on, but for about six years I had it good."

"Until then." Odd said.

"Is this detention going to be on your records?" Jérémie asked, sipping at his drink.

"Yes." April said, "But I probably could tell my principal that I wanted to see all aspects of a French school."

"Your principal would buy _that_?" Ulrich asked, surprised.

"No, but we are friends, so she would believe it." April said. "I am that type of person who, if I wanted to, would get in trouble on purpose. When is next class?"

"Any time now." Yumi said.

As if on cue, the bell rang, telling them to get moving.

-.-.-.-

"I said it at breakfast, and I am saying it again." April said after taking a bite of her lunch crepe. "You French people have it made with the food."

"And I thought Odd was crazy with his food." Ulrich said.

"Oh, Jérémie, I need your help with my pillow." April said, looking up from her food to the blond haired boy across the table.

"Your pillow?" Jérémie asked, looking at her above his glasses.

"Oh, uh, my computer." April corrected. "Those two words have always confused me. But I think the converter is not working properly. My _computer_ keeps blipping as if it has too much power feeding into it."

"Right, America's still has 110 volts." Aélita said.

"I can look at it after lunch." Jérémie said.

"How long is your lunch break?"

"Two hours." Odd said, his mouth full.

"You are lucky. Back home, we only have fifteen to thirty minutes." April said. "Some people barely make it through the lunch line to get their food."

"Fifteen minutes!?" Ulrich exclaimed.

"Ya, but we also get out at 2:15." April explained.

"Win some, loose some." Odd said, smiling.

-.-.-.-

"I see what you mean about your computer blipping all the time." Jérémie said as he looked at the screen on April's laptop.

"I really think it is just the converter." April said.

The front door opened with Maggie's voice getting their attention. "Yes, I've been working at tracking them all down. Fumet works here at Kadic. Apparently, right after the project was done with, a few went to work as teachers here."

"Are you sure no one's here?" a male voice asked, walking into the apartment.

"No, April's with her friends." Maggie said.

April looked around and saw the sliding door to a closet. She knelt down to Jérémie and motioned with her hands that they should go inside the closet before they were noticed.

Jérémie nodded his head, understanding. He shut the computer and followed April inside the closet. The door closed just in time to hear the man's voice getting close as he checked the room.

"Have you heard any word about Franz Hopper?" he asked as he looked into April's room.

"No. No one has found any information on where he's hiding." Maggie admitted. "But I think I might have the location of his granddaughter. Her name is Aélita."

"His granddaughter?" the man asked, the two sounding like they were in the living room and on the sofa now.

"She's about the right age with him being in his 60's now." Maggie admitted.

"But you're forgetting that his wife was only in her 20's when she married Franz and had her first child at 28." the man said. "That was in, what, 1982?"

"That would make her child 25, 26." Maggie said, reconsidering her first concussion. "If Aélita was the granddaughter of Franz, that means his daughter would've had her when she was 16."

"It happens." the man said.

"That would make sense. Aélita's an orphan according to what she told me."

RING RING RING

April looked at Jérémie with shock on her face. Jérémie pulled out his cell and saw that it was Ulrich calling.

April took it out of his hand and opened the door a crack. She slid the phone out and shut the door in time for the man to walk in, gun in hand.

"It's just her cell phone." Maggie said, walking in behind him. "You've always been too paranoid."

The man walked over to the cell on the floor that laid next to the laptop. "What teenager would leave their cell phone in their room?" he asked, picking up the cell and standing up. He looked towards the closet the two were hiding in and reached towards it to open it.

"What time did Boss want us back to the office?" Maggie asked, stopping his hand an inch away from the handle.

"Oh no." the man said, looking at the clock on April's desk, sliding his gun back in the holster on his right hand side hip. "In five minutes. We've gotta get going!" he put the phone back where it was, precisely, and stood up.

"Come on, I'll drive." Maggie said as keys flew through the air.

The two in the closet waited while the door shut and made sure no one was coming back.

"Well, at least I know Franz Hopper was a real person." April said as she slid open the door and they walked out.

"How do you know about Franz?" Jérémie asked as he reached down and picked up his phone.

"You would not believe me if I told you." April said. "And I promised I would not tell."

"Doesn't that sound familiar?" Jérémie asked himself as he pushed a button on his cell and listened to his missed call.

April walked out of her room and headed towards the kitchen, only to have her eyes get distracted by what she saw in Maggie's room. "Hey Jérémie, come and see this!" April called.

Jérémie came out of April's room and stopped behind her, staring at what they saw in Maggie's room.

April pushed opened the door more and walked in, avoiding the papers on the floor. She walked over to the desk and saw a photo.

"It is a hit list." April said, surprised. "Ok. Hit photo."

It was a black and white photo of all the men who worked on Project: Cartilage. A few of the heads had X's through them as if to say they were already dead. Franz's head was circled with a question mark next to it. Another head was circled. Next to the circle was written, "Next; Fumet"

"Who would want to kill Mr. Fumet?" April asked.

"The FBI." Jérémie said as he looked at the photo closer. "They're after everyone who was in Project: Cartilage."

"Project: Cartilage?" April asked. "The only Cartilage I know was Hannibal, and he was destroyed by Scipio."

"Project: Cartilage was a military project but was for-goed in 1994." Jérémie said.

"And now they want all memory of it erased." April guessed. "Who would have guessed Odd's Aunt was in on it."

"I know Odd wouldn't." Jérémie said. "Come on, I've got to tell them."

"Hold on." April said, running out of the room. She came back a moment latter with a camera and took a photo of the photo. "I want to check some of the files while she is not here."

"What? You afraid you have one in here?" Jérémie asked, watching her knell down on the floor and pick up some of the files.

"Who knows." April said. "Here is one on you, or at least someone named Jérémie Belpois." she handed it up to him before looking through some more.

Jérémie opened the file and saw that for certain it was his file. It had a photo of him that was paper clipped to the first page.

"They have a file on me, too." April said, opening a file. She took photos so she could read it latter and closed it to look at others. "Here is one on your friend, Ulrich, and one on Odd and Yumi. And here are a few of my friends."

"What is Xanadu?" Jérémie asked, looking at another folder.

"Huh?" April asked, looking up and seeing he had her folder. She quickly reached up and shut the folder, smiling as she said, "Uh, it is a wonderful world full of a paradise, do you not read stories?"

"Yes, I've read. I was asking about this virtual Xanadu in your file." Jérémie said, looking at her in the eyes.

April picked up the file at her feet and opened it, seeing the word Lyoko. She looked up and said, "Well, since you know about Lyoko, you should have heard about Xanadu. Franz Hopper's original mess-up of a virtual world."

"Well now I know where Xana got his name." Jérémie said.

"Oh do not get me started on Xana. That virus wants all of my friends deader than dead." April said. "Ever since that tornado that went through my town, it set off the supercomputer in my friend's father's old factory. Apparently the FBI had called Franz Hopper's ideas over and used them to create Xanadu before he had started to work on your Lyoko."

RING!

"Zut!" Jérémie said, turning towards the alarm clock by Maggie's bed. "We're going to be late for Science."

"Do not worry." April said as she laid down the files back to where she remembered them being before. "There. And no one will realize the difference."

"Let's go." Jérémie said as the two headed out the door of Maggie's room. Jérémie grabbed the two bags from the hallway closet and threw April's to her before the two ran out of the room.

-.-.-.-

Jérémie and April made it to Ms. Hertz's class just as the bell rang for class to begin. Jérémie sat down next to Ulrich as April sat next to Aélita.

Ulrich leaned over to Jérémie and whispered, "Where were you? Odd wanted to get started on his movie and we needed April and you."

"We found something a little more important that Odd's movie." Jérémie said, looking forward as Ms. Hertz started to talk about cells of different plants and what was inside them. "Odd's aunt, Maggie, she's working with the FBI. We'll tell you all latter all the details, but apparently, Franz had created a prototype of Lyoko called Xanadu and it's in New Mexico."

"Are you telling me there are another group of digital warriors?" Ulrich asked, a little too loudly.

"Stern!" Ms. Hertz said, stopping her lecture. "Maybe, if you like talking so much, you can explain to us the workings of the ER in a plant cell."

"Uh..." Ulrich tried to remember but couldn't.

"Or what about the only thing a plant cell has that an animal cell does not?"

"Chloroplast, I know that one." Ulrich said.

"Only because you should've learned it in the seventh year." Ms. Hertz said, putting her hands on her hips. "If I hear you talking when you shouldn't be, you'll be with Jim in detention for two hours this afternoon."

"Yes ma'am." Ulrich said.

-.-.-.-

"So what was _so_ important that you had to miss recording?" Odd asked as they meet up with Yumi before the last class of the day.

"Your Aunt, Maggie, she is working with the FBI." April said, looking at Odd.

"What!?" Odd exclaimed.

"She's telling the truth." Jérémie said. He looked at April as she took out her camera from her cargo pants pocket. "She's got files on all of us, and April's Xanadu Warriors."

"Xanadu Warriors?" Yumi asked, putting her hands on her hips as April turned the camera so that they could see the photos of everything. Ulrich took the camera from April so that he could read the files.

"Xanadu was a proto-type to your Lyoko, I am guessing." April said. "I do not know what year Lyoko was created, but Xanadu was created in either 1984 or '89. The handwriting is not that good. I say it was '89."

"Were as Lyoko was created in '93." Aélita said as Ulrich passed her the camera. "But how do you know Xanadu was the proto-type of Lyoko?"

"Franz Hopper sent over his schematics to a man called Timothy Stern." April said. She looked over to Ulrich and said, "I am sure there is no relation. There are plenty of Sterns in my area."

"I wonder how many more virtual worlds are out there." Aélita said, passing Odd and Yumi the camera.

"Probably plenty, since Xana escaped Lyoko." Ulrich said.

"So Xana was created in Lyoko." April said. "We did not have so much of a problem with him until school ended last year. We have been fighting him all summer."

"And that was when he escaped." Yumi said, passing April her camera back. "At least we know why those two weeks were so dead, Xana-wise."

"To think, it is all my fault." Aélita said, looking down. She stepped backwards to lean against the pillar holding up the arcade.

"It isn't your fault, Aélita!" Jérémie exclaimed, moving over to her and putting his arm around her shoulders.

"Ya! Anyone would've thought that was your memories in that bubble." Ulrich said. "Even Franz did."

"Anyway, my friends and I were asking for trouble no matter if you had freed Xana or not." April admitted. "We were helping Antea get out of Xanadu, since any records of her being a digital creation of any sort were nonexistent, we worked on a way of bringing her back to earth."

"Antea!" Aélita asked, looking up at the brown haired American. "What does she look like? How old? Does she remember her past!?"

"Whoa! Uh, she has pink hair, just like you do, just longer, she is about 18, and no, she has no memory of her prier life." April said, trying to answer in order.

"18." Aélita echoed.

"Why? Do you know someone with that description and name?" April asked.

"My mother." Aélita said. "She disappeared when I was little. Franz would never tell me what really happened. She was about 30 when she disappeared."

"I am sorry." April said.

"But we need to watch out." Jérémie said, remembering something Maggie and the man were talking about. "They believe that Aélita is the granddaughter of Franz."

"The granddaughter!" Yumi exclaimed. "How old do they believe her mother was when she had her!?"

"16. That would explain why you told them you was an orphan." April explained.

"Yes. I know my father was well in age, but he is still my father." Aélita said.

RING

"I guess we better get going." Yumi said. "We'll talk after class."

"Ya, we have probably the easiest class for you next." Odd said as the group spit.

"Bye Yumi!" Ulrich called.

Yumi waved to them as she headed off to science.

"What is it?" April asked.

"English." Odd and Jérémie said together. Jérémie sounded like he hated the class, Odd the opposite.

"You do not like the class, Jérémie?" April asked, seeing his face full of displeasure.

"Not really." Jérémie admitted.

"He's not all that good with any language but French." Ulrich said.

"English is weird." April nodded. "Though, if you ever go there and have problems with the T-H sound, just put a D there and no one will know the differences."

"You kidding?" Ulrich asked.

"No. But it will not get you through class, not even in America."


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

"Do you have any idea when April's getting back." Joro asked as he sat down at the chair to the main terminal of the supercomputer.

"One more week, lover boy." Mack said, putting his hands behind his head and leaning back on the sofa right outside of the three walls of screens used for Xanadu. "She's in France right now."

"Hopefully finding someone for a _good_ boyfriend." Cat said, walking in and throwing her book bag to the floor with her skateboard.

"You and her having a _French_ boyfriend. Why?" Antea asked, looking up from her magazine.

"Because she has always loved the French." Cat said.

"We have connection!" Joro announced as he slid the chair over to another screen. He picked up the mike and put it on his ear.

"Finally!" Cat said, running over to be behind Joro. Mack and Antea joined her.

"April! How's life on the other side of the planet?" Antea asked.

"Very informative." April said, her face appearing on the screen.

"Where are you?" Mack asked, looking behind her and seeing a blue-green wall. "That is one weird looking bedroom."

"You remember Franz Hopper?" April asked.

"Of course." Cat answered.

"Well apparently he created another virtual world using the same schematics that he used to create Xanadu." April explained. She looked off screen to her left and asked, "Viens, s'il-vous-plaît."

Behind April appeared Jérémie, Ulrich, Odd, Aélita, and Yumi.

"Let me introduce the _Lyoko_ Warriors." April said. "Lyoko Warriors, the Xanadu Defenders."

Cat started to laugh as she looked over the group of warriors on the other side of the screen.

"Cat, quit laughing." April said, sternly.

"I'm sorry. That guy's hair is just so funny." Cat said, trying to stop.

"You can't laugh at him." Mack said, looking at her. "You should see yourself on Xanadu." he looked back at the screens and explained. "She's got the most stuck up hair in all of the world."

Jérémie looked confused so Odd mumbled something to him. He looked back to the screen, smiled, and said, "Thank Lyoko for this hair style."

"Ya, but I didn't copy it in the real world." Cat said.

"Anyway!" April said, waving her hands to get everyone's attention. "We need your help, Joro."

"Anything." Joro said, smiling.

"Get a lock on Xana's last trip to Xanadu and trace his trail." April said. "Find his door to the network. We might be able to find a way to help the Lyoko Warriors and visa versa."

"When did you become so high and mighty?" Mack asked, smiling.

Joro moved his chair over to another screen to his left, leaving the others to talk to April.

"Since this thing became a worldwide crises." April said. "Who knows how far Xana will go to take over the world."

"April's right." Yumi said. "For the past three years, Xana has been trying for just France. Now that he has a finger in America, he can try for the rest of the world. And who knows how many other countries could there be a group of people like us who are fighting Xana without realizing there are others."

"There can't be that many virtual worlds Franz Hopper had a hand in creating." Antea said.

"With the FBI holding his ideas, who knows." Aélita said, still surprised at how close this girl looked like her mother.

"I've got the supercomputer tracing his route through Xanadu, but the programing needs an upgrade, badly. It'll take a while." Joro said, sliding back so that he was in front of the screens again.

"I don't care what time it is, call me." April said. "Wake me up if you have to."

"Got it, April." Joro said.

"You're not American, are you?" Yumi asked, looking at Joro.

"None of us are truly American." Cat said.

"She meant born in America, dummy." Mack said, swinging his hand over Cat's head.

"Watch it. Before I kick you where it hurts." Cat threatened, grabbing his hand as it finished its swing.

Joro shook his head at both the question and his friends. "No, I'm Bulgarian."

"Just wondering." Yumi said.

"If we can connect Lyoko with Xanadu," Mack started. "what good will that do us? Lyoko has _got_ to have a better quality with everything from weapons to just how we look. It's about four years younger, maybe more. A lot of technology comes out in four years."

"You're telling me." April said. "Their super-calculator only takes up a small space of a room."

"You're kidding me! I wish this thing did!" Cat exclaimed.

"How mush space do you take?" Jérémie asked, his English hard to understand.

"Practically, the whole factory, mines the scanners and the sofa." Joro said. "The scanners are even on a part of the super-calculator."

"We have to climb steps to get there." Antea explained.

"Ya, well, I hate to be annoying, but we've gotta get going to bed." Odd said. "Jim's going to be roaming."

"You're sleeping in a dorm?" Cat asked.

"Ya, and I'm going to school too." April said.

"Ouch. I'm sorry for you." Mack said.

"See you." April said.

"Bye April." Joro said before ending the connection.

April turned around and smiled. "Thanks for letting me tell them."

"They deserved to know." Jérémie said, shrugging.

Odd stretched and yawned before saying, "Come on. I have a nice date tonight."

"With whom?" Ulrich asked as April dropped from the chair.

"My pillow." Odd said, smiling.

"Only you." Yumi said as they walked into the elevator.

"You guys are lucky." April said as the elevator curtain shut.

"Why?" Ulrich asked.

"Lyoko is all disguised." April said. "Ours, you slide open the rusted door and, vola! There is the screen walls and chair with the random sofa and rug setup. You go up the stairs and you get to the scanners."

The elevator opened up to reveal they had gotten to the ground floor. Everyone walked out and started up the ropes to get to the bridge.

"Here's something I've been thinking about lately." Ulrich started as they walked down the bridge to the man hole. He looked towards April as he asked, "Xana possessed you, yet he can't possess us. How come?"

"Xana possessed me?" April asked, vaguely remembering something. "Xana has never tried to possess any of us before. He was able to possess my mother. We turned back time so no one remembered it, but he has never gotten us."

"You did say that Xana had first started to attack you at the end of school last year, non?" Aélita asked.

April nodded her head.

"That's in June. It's only the end of July. Maybe that's why. You haven't gained the immunity we have for fighting through Lyoko for three years." Yumi said. "Problem solved."

"I guess." Ulrich said, shoving his hands into his pockets.

"See you all in the morning." Yumi said, walking past the man hole.

"See you Yumi." Ulrich said.

"Bye!" Aélita called as Jérémie went down.

-.-.-.-

Odd opened the door to April and Maggie's apartment and walked in, shutting the door behind him. He was about to head into April's room, only to notice her eating something at the island.

"Hey April." Odd said, going over to the stool next to her and sitting down.

April looked up and smiled as she saw Odd. "Hey Odd. What's up?"

"Nothing much." Odd said. "What you doing still up?"

"Waiting for my mother to call." April said, eating more of her ice cream.

Odd looked at the ice cream, licking his lips.

"You want some?" April asked, pointing with her spoon at her bowl.

"Yes!" Odd said, smiling.

April got up and went over to the freezer. As she pulled out the carton of ice cream, the cell phone next to her bowl started to vibrate.

"Can you answer that. It is probably my mother." April said, scooping out some ice cream.

Odd picked up the phone and hit the green button. "Hello, April's cell phone. Her good friend, Odd speaking." Odd said in English.

"Hello, Odd, is it?" a female voice said from the other end. "Can I talk to my daughter?"

April walked over to Odd with his bowl and set it down. "Here she is." Odd said, handing her the phone.

"Hi mom." April said, walking over to the wall next to where her stool was and leaned against the wall.

Odd tried to keep his mind off of translating what April was saying and just eat his ice cream, but when her voice raised and something about 'just letting me die' caught his attention, he couldn't help but look up.

April hung up and held her head so that her brown hair would cover her face.

"Is everything alright?" Odd asked.

April shook her head to move the hair out of her way and sat down back on her stool. "It is just my mother. Even when I am miles away from home, she still will blame me for stuff around the house."

"That's not right." Odd said, shaking his head.

"Right or not, it makes no difference." April said, finishing her ice cream.

"I wish I could help you, but my parents are not exactly normal." Odd said. "They've never gotten in a fight. Not even with me or my sisters."

"You are lucky." April said, standing up. She picked up her bowl and took it over to the sink.

"Hey, something just hit me." Odd said, finishing his ice cream.

"What?" April asked as she turned around and picked up his bowl, leaning across the island.

"Xanadu has a program to go back in time, non?" Odd asked.

"Yes, and we have had to use it a plenty of times." April said, washing out the bowls.

"How come I never notice your returns to the past?" Odd asked.

"Do you ever get that feeling like you have done something before, but cannot remember it until it has already happened? And not so vivid as when you make the return." April asked.

"Actually, now that you mention it, yes." Odd said.

"I think that is the effect the one group gets when the other starts the returns." April said, turning back and leaning on the island so that she was looking at Odd in the eyes. "Like when Xana took me over in the cafeteria."

"And the only reason that you know that was because you remember me answering to your question about my grandma?" Odd offered.

April nodded her head. "I know that, the first time, Yumi went somewhere else instead of the cafeteria. Though, where is a little, uh..."

"Fuzzy?"

"Yes." April said, standing up straight.

"Is Maggie here?" Odd asked, looking towards the door close to them.

"She has not returned back from her meeting with the 'boss', whoever that is." April said. "And, actually, now that I know she has a file on me and my friends as well as all of you, I am afraid to sleep here."

"I see what you mean." Odd said. "I could probably get Ulrich to let you keep his throwing stars down here for protection."

"Thank you, but I have tried throwing stars. Cat almost lost all of her life points." April said. "I'll stay with my bo."

"Like, bows and arrows?" Odd asked, remembering that she could teach that.

"No, a staff. Bo is the Japanese name for it." April said. "What weapon do you have?"

"A thing called a Laser Arrow." Odd said, putting his hand in a fist. He pointed to the top of his fist and continued, "The arrow comes out of my hand here whenever I think about shooting."

"Nice. And your friends?"

"Well, Ulrich's got-"

"Sorry I'm late, April." Maggie's voice said as the door opened. Maggie walked into the hallway that led to the kitchen and saw Odd with her. "Oh, Odd, what are you doing up so late?"

"We got stuck talking." Odd said, looking at his aunt with more caution than before.

"Well, you better get going back to your room before Jim finds you missing." Maggie said, smiling. "Don't want to get into any more trouble, do you?"

"One detention this week was enough for me, thank you." Odd said as he stood up. He looked at April and smiled as he said, "Good night, April."

"Good night, Odd. Oh, before I forget," April said, stopping him. "an idea to try with your feet. Wear flip flops for a few days straight. A lot of the time, the only reason feet stink is because they are forced to be in shoes all the time. Air them out for probably a week and there will not be as much of a smell."

"I never thought of that." Odd said, smiling. "Thanks."

"I just heard a girl complaining about the smell and thought you might be tired of people doing that." April said.

"Night."

"Night." Odd looked up at his aunt before walking out the door.

"Odd likes you." Maggie said, looking back at April as the door shut.

"I know." April said. "And I think I like him. Good night."

"Night April." Maggie said, watching April stand up and walk into her room. The door shut, leaving Maggie to go into her room.

April leaned against the door, worried about what Maggie might do. She locked the door and sighed.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Tuesday

Beep Beep!

"Huh? Aélita, was that you?" Jérémie asked in his sleep. He opened his eyes once he realized it was his computer trying to wake him up. He sat up and put his glasses on as he got off of his bed. He walked over to the computer and saw that there was an activated tower. He picked up his cell and dialed Ulrich's number only to find no one answering but his voice mail.

Jérémie called Odd's number with similar results. He shook his head as he dialed Yumi's number, not bothering with changing clothes before slipping on his shoes and walking out of his room to Aélita's room across the hallway.

"Jérémie?" Yumi's voice asked from the other end.

"Xana's attacking." Jérémie said as he opened Aélita's door.

"I'm on my way." Yumi said, regrettably.

Jérémie put his cell in his pj's pocket and looked up to see Aélita was already changed and putting on her boots.

"Xana. I know." Aélita said.

"Can you go down and get April. I've got to get Odd and Ulrich. They're not answering their cells." Jérémie said, turning around and walking out.

Jérémie went up a floor and over to Ulrich and Odd's room. He opened the door only to find their room a wreck and the two were nowhere in sight. He dialed Aélita's number as he headed towards the factory's short cut through the gym.

-.-.-.-

Aélita took her cell from her pocket before it could ring a second time as she walked down the hallway of the ground floor of the dorms.

"Jérémie?" Aélita asked as she tried April and Maggie's door and found that they never locked it.

"Ulrich and Odd are missing. I think Xana might have taken them." Jérémie said.

Aélita looked around, stunned by what was spread throughout the floor of the hallway and living room. "I think I know who Xana possessed." She walked over the paper on the floor and went over to April's door. She pushed opened April's already open door, expecting the worst and seeing the door had been busted open with force, only to find April sound asleep and sprawled out on her bed. "Maggie."

"Wake April. We need her help. I'm heading to the factory and Yumi should be there soon." Jérémie said, ending the call.

Aélita put her cell back in her pocket and went over to April, shaking her shoulders gently. "April, wake up."

"Huh!" April asked, sitting up suddenly. She looked around and saw Aélita standing next to her bed. "Aélita? What's going on? How did you get in?"

"Maggie's gone and so is Odd and Ulrich. Oh, and your door was rammed into." Aélita explained as April got up. "Xana's activated a tower and we think Maggie's got the two."

April got her flip flops on and looked at Aélita before the two started out of the apartment. Not bothering to change out of her camo night gown.

-.-.-.-

"Ulrich?" Odd asked as he opened his eyes. He looked around and saw that he was tied to a chair in a pool that had been emptied out of water, but cement was filling in and already past his feet to his cafes.

"Odd?" Ulrich asked, his voice right behind Odd's head.

"Ulrich, good. What happened?" Odd asked, seeing Maggie above them on the ground floor.

"Just a wild guess here, but I think Maggie's under Xana's control and he's trying to bury us under a pile of concert." Ulrich said.

Odd looked down at himself and realized he was only dressed in his boxers. He tried to lean his head over to Ulrich and asked, "Any chance you fell asleep with your cell on you?"

"No, and even if I did, I wouldn't have it with me now." Ulrich said, looking down at his own body and saw that he, also, was only in his boxers.

"Nice. Xana sure is thinking of everything now, isn't he?" Odd asked sarcastically.

-.-.-.-

"I hate to do this, but Aélita needs protectors to get to the tower." Jérémie said, typing into the computer. He turned his chair around and looked at the three girl. Manly at Aélita and Yumi, before asking, "Are you with me?"

"I don't like it, but she does have fighting experience on a virtual world." Yumi said, crossing her arms over her chest.

Aélita only nodded her head.

"Alright." Jérémie said before turning back around to his screens. "You three head to the scanners. The activated tower is in the forest sector."

April followed Yumi and Aélita into the elevator and down to the scanner room.

"Do they look anything like your scanners?" Aélita asked as she walked over to one.

"Exactly." April said, surprised, as she went over to the last one and stepped inside.

"Transfer Yumi, Transfer Aélita, Transfer April. Scanner. Virtualization!" Jérémie said as the scanner sent the three to Lyoko.

-.-.-.-

"Uph." April's voice said as she landed harder than she expected.

"You ok?" Yumi asked as she turned around to look at April.

"Yeah, you've got farther to fall than we do." April said, dusting off her armored skirt. She looked at her hands and her outfit in awe.

"Different that you're used to?" Aélita guessed.

"Very. You actually look more real than we do in Xanadu." April said. "It's more like you've been put into a cartoon than a video game."

"This is all really fascinating and all girls, but Ulrich and Odd are missing and so is Maggie." Jérémie said as two vehicles appeared in front of the girls. "April, I should've asked, but can you ride a motor bike?"

"We'll find out today." April said, her French flowing more smoothly than on Earth as she jumped onto the Overbike and looked over at the Overwing as Aélita got onto the back of it with Yumi.

"Hey! You said 'we'll'." Aélita said, noticing.

"Ya, actually, I'm speaking English." April said as they started off towards the tower off to the north. "I found out a while back at the supercomputers act as a universal translator."

"Cool." Yumi said. "So, like right now, can you understand me?"

"Yes." Aélita said.

"I'm speaking Japanese." Yumi admitted. "I never knew it could translate us."

"Nice tidbit." Jérémie said. "Three monsters coming up in front of you. Bloks."

"Thanks Jérémie." April said, taking her right hand off the handle and holding it out. She closed her eyes as a bo appeared to grow out of her palm.

"Wow." Yumi said, surprised.

"Neat trick, huh?" April asked, looking at the girls as they turned around a rock and saw the Bloks. She looked straight and held her bo like a stave and aimed for the Eye of Xana.

She hit it dead center and shot behind it, turning so that she would stop sideways and watched the Blok blow up. She looked over to Yumi and Aélita and saw that Aélita had just killed one of the Bloks, leaving the last for Yumi.

Yumi flew upwards and dropped her fan down onto the Blok's Eye of Xana, killing it.

"Come on, Odd and Ulrich need us." Aélita said as they flew towards the tower.

April held her bo next to her, pointing it forward as she drove down the forest path. "Xana's sure making it easy for us." April said, glancing over to Yumi and Aélita.

"Too easy in my option." Yumi said, shaking her head.

"We'll use what we've got." Aélita said. "Who knows what Xana's doing to Odd and Ulrich."

"I know." Jérémie said as a window popped up on his center screen. It was a security camera of the pool. "Xana's incasing them in cement."

"What!?" Yumi exclaimed.

"The cements up to their chest, so you might want to hurry up." Jérémie said, trying to judge where the cement was.

"Got it, Jérémie." April said.

"Behind you! Xana's sent some Hornets." Jérémie said as four triangles appeared behind the two green and one yellow ones.

"Yumi?" April asked.

"Take care of Aélita." Yumi said as she got close enough to the Overbike for Aélita to jump over.

Aélita jumped over and sat down behind April so that Yumi could distract the Hornets.

"Hold on tight!" April said as she revved up the Overbike to high gear.

Aélita gripped April's waist as they sped through the forest, trying to out run the Hornets.

"Energy Field!" Aélita said, throwing an energy ball behind them to the Hornet that followed them.

"Nice shot, Aélita." Jérémie said. "The tower's just around the next bend."

"See it." April said as they turned around a group of trees. Dead ahead of them was the tower with a lake around it. The steps Aélita created two years ago to first deactivate the tower still leading to it.

"April, Aélita. Yumi just got devitalized." Jérémie said. "Two Hornets are coming your way."

"Statics report on Ulrich and Odd?" April asked as she tried to get Aélita closer before the Hornets came.

"They're up to their necks in cement." Jérémie said.

"Got it, Jérémie." Aélita said.

"Jump when I say go, ok?" April asked.

Aélita nodded her head, ready to fly.

They got so close that Aélita didn't know if she even had room to make sure she landed on the logs.

"GO!" April ordered, sliding the Overbike sideways.

Aélita jumped off, flying through the air as April finished her 180 and shot off towards the two Hornets.

Aélita landed on the third log, her finger nails gripping into the wood to keep herself onto it as her legs slipped. She pulled herself up and stood up.

Aélita backed up and ran to jump onto the next log, sending herself all the way to the island. She ran towards the tower, slowing down as she entered it, walking up to the middle of the platform. She floated upward and landed on the second platform.

-.-.-.-

"Ulrich." Odd said, trying to keep his chin above the cement that was pouring into the pool they were in.

"Ya." Ulrich said, doing the same.

"Look, before we die, I-I want to tell you something." Odd said.

"What? And we're not going to die."

"You remember when your diary went missing the second time?" Odd asked.

"Ya."

"Well, that was my fault."

"You what!"

"I was just curious!" Odd defended.

"What did you read!?"

"Just about what you really think about Yumi." He spit out as much as he could of the cement, only to start to panic as it was getting too high.

"Odd!?" Ulrich asked, hoping his friend was staying with him. "Stay alive so I can kill you latter! Please!"

-.-.-.-

Aélita placed her hand on the screen and saw her name appear. Her name vanished to show CODE.

-.-.-.-

Ulrich felt the cement rise even higher and shut his mouth so that none could get in. Odd's thrashing had slowed down as if he was losing the battle.

-.-.-.-

LYOKO finished typing on the screen, sending all the binary code around the tower downward.

"Tower deactivated." Aélita said.

"Return to the Past now!" Jérémie said, pushing the "enter" key.

The white light came up, out of the Holospear and covered the world. It went over the pool full of cement. Odd's hair and part of Ulrich's forehead all that was visible.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

"So, how was your night?" April asked as she walked over to Odd and Ulrich in the cafeteria. She sat down her tray of food next to Odd's and sat down.

"Xana attacked, didn't he?" Odd asked, unsure if it had been a dream or not.

"Yes. I got to go to Lyoko." April said.

"What?!" Ulrich exclaimed.

"Yes." April said, nodding her head. "I do not think it was Jérémie's first chose, but I am glad I went. Oh, and I noticed you are wearing flip flops."

"Ya, thanks for the idea." Odd said.

"That was you that gave him the idea?!" Ulrich exclaimed.

"It works." April said, shrugging her shoulders.

"OK, it just smells bad for the rest of us." Ulrich whined.

"I cannot help that." April said. "Maybe a little bit of cologne?"

"It might take a bit more than a little bit." Ulrich said, holding his nose.

"Salut, tout le monde." Aélita said as she came over and sat down with her food.

"Practicing your English?" April guessed, looking at the girl across the table from her.

"Oui, pourquel pas?"

April shrugged and took a bite out of her toast.

"You're here early." Odd said, his mouth full of banana. "What, did Sissi finish early?"

"No, I got up early." Aélita said.

"What do you mean?" April asked.

"Sissi takes up the showers every morning and afternoon." Aélita explained. "She thinks they're hers personally."

"If you want, you can use my shower." April said. "No lines and all the hot water you could want."

"You kidding me!" Odd exclaimed.

"No. There is a water heater just for my apartment." April said.

"Do you mind if we use it, too?" Ulrich asked.

"Sure. As long as Maggie does not say no."

"Hey April." Jérémie said as he came over. "Joro sent me a message through Lyoko. He found Xana's passage." Jérémie handed April a printout page for her to read.

"He says there are multiple channels he has been using, but the strongest one was a direct link through the web from Xanadu to Lyoko." April said, reading the paper as Jérémie sat down next to Aélita.

"Maybe soon we'll be able to go from Lyoko to Xanadu." Odd said.

"That's what we're trying to do." Jérémie said.

"Jérémie, I have a question." April started.

"Hum?"

"Do you ever go to Lyoko?"

"Not really." Jérémie admitted, shaking his head. "Why?"

"Just wondering." April said. "My group, we kind of rotate who is on Earth, and who is on Xanadu. But then again, Xanadu is so simple, anyone could work it. The hardest thing to remember is how to turn back time."

"Hey, when are we going to work on my cartoon?" Odd asked, almost done with his food.

"Well, Ms. Hertz canceled class today, so I think we can do it during first period." Ulrich said.

"Your teachers can cancel class?!" April asked, surprised.

"They don't do it much, but ya, they can." Aélita said.

"To bad Yumi doesn't have Ms. Hertz for first period." Ulrich said.

"That would make it too easy." Odd said. "Come on! I want to put it all together before April leaves."

"Give me a moment to finish my breakfast, Odd!" Aélita said with a smile.

"This may sound really random, but it just hit me." April started, finishing her breakfast. She put her arm behind the chair and sat back, looking at her friends. "Not to be cruel to you French people, but my friends always make jokes how the French are more perverted then we are, and also a lot are gay. Yet, at your school, I haven't seen a single gay couple, or even heard a perverted joke."

"I think that's more of Americans stereotyping us." Jérémie said. "I don't think I know one perverted joke or one gay person."

"I've always heard that Americans were the same way." Ulrich said.

"Well, it is true. The president is more of a celebrity than anything. The news focused on the fact that they thought he was wearing girl's jeans more than what he has been doing, or well, not doing." April said. "I still say more countries need to do what Germany is doing."

"What? Kicking everyone out that doesn't speak German and isn't a Christian?" Ulrich asked.

"Precisely! I am tired of the fact I have to know more Spanish than English!" April said. "No, I do not have a problem with the other religions, even if I am a Christian. I have a friend who is a Satanist and I have many friends who are atheists. I do not promote their religion, but the Bible says that we should treat everyone like our brothers."

"Is this how your conversations go back home?" Aélita asked.

"Close to it, why?" April said, surprised.

"We just never talk about things like this." Odd said.

"At least it is better than some of the conversations Irish Guy likes to have."

"Irish Guy?" Ulrich asked.

"It a nickname. I do not know his full name. But his conversations go down the gutter all the time."

"Down the gutter?" Jérémie asked.

"To put it kindly, he is one big pervert. At my lunch table we cannot eat a turkey sub, milk, apples, or anything that may and can be taken the wrong way."

"You've got some weird friends." Odd said.

"You're one to talk, _Odd_." Aélita said.

"Odd is not all that bad." April admitted, standing up. "Come on, do we not have a cartoon to make?"

"Not that bad, you haven't heard his jokes." Ulrich exclaimed, getting up.

-.-.-.-

Yumi walked onto campus with her little brother, Hiroki, and was glad to walk away from him to find her friends.

She walked over to the dormitory and went up to Odd and Ulrich's room. Yumi smiled as she remembered Ulrich's call telling her about them recording voices for the cartoon today.

Yumi put her ear to the door to hear if they were actually recording so that she could open the door without messing up the voices.

"...is Franz Hopper really an old science teacher from here?" April asked.

Yumi noticed that that wasn't in the script and opened the door. She saw Odd sitting on his bed as he explained to April next to him. "Ya. I told you. Every person in my movies are real people."

"So, all this actually happened?" April asked.

"Ya, you're actually in Sissi's place, but she said a while back that it was a stupid idea for a movie." Yumi said, sitting next to Ulrich on his bed.

"I took Lyoko out of it, but other than that, it's as good as I could get it." Odd said.

"And our band died a long while back." Ulrich said.

"I never even got to hear your song." Aélita said, remembering she was on Lyoko when the Pop Rock Progresses were alive.

"You don't want to." Yumi said, shaking her head. "The song was terrible. We had Jim on a trombone!"

"I can't believe that was already three years ago." Jérémie said.

"You have been fighting Xana for three years?!" April asked, surprised.

"Actually, three and a half." Jérémie said.

Ring!

"Zut! I'm late!" Yumi exclaimed, grabbing her bag and standing up from beside Ulrich.

"Do not worry!" April said, standing up. She grabbed Yumi's arm and said, "You will be there in a flash! Teleportation!"

A green light turned around the two girls before they disappeared.

"YUMI!" Ulrich cried.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Yumi opened her eyes and realized they were just outside her French classroom, just out of sight.

"How did you...?" Yumi started to ask.

"Xanadu. I will explain latter." April said. "Good luck in class."

"Thanks." Yumi said, rushing off to the door before the late bell rang.

April watched Yumi run off towards the classroom door with students walking inside before saying, "Teleportation." disappearing into a green flashing light.

-.-.-.-

"What just happened!?" Odd asked, his eyes wide and looking at the spot where Yumi and April had just stood.

The green light re-appeared at the same exact spot that April and Yumi had disappeared. Though, this time, only April stood there as the light faded.

"What on earth happened!?" Ulrich asked, pointing his finger at April. "Where is Yumi!?"

"Do not worry. She is in the class." April said, not fazed by how Ulrich looked towards her. "Apparently there is one major difference between Lyoko and Xanadu. Our abilities follow us into the real world."

"What?" Aélita asked as Jérémie's mouth opened a little.

"Yes, if you have not guessed, my is Teleportation. Mack has Transformation, Cat has control over plants, Joro has, what he calls, Mastermind of the Computer, and Antea has Levitation."

"'Mastermind of the Computer'?" Ulrich asked, relaxing back down to his bed.

"He has a computer for a brain." April tried to explain, pointing to her own head. "If he sees something that was recorded in the super-calculator, he will 'flash' on it and get everything on that information. That is why he really wants to find the way from Lyoko to Xanadu, most likely. That would give him more information. And give both of us a better chance of defeating Xana."

-.-.-.-

"Hey Odd, is April downstairs?" Jérémie asked as he printed out something.

"As far as I know." Odd said as he was getting up from the floor of Jérémie's room, leaving Ulrich and Aélita to play a game of Slamwhich. "I was just about to go down there, why?"

"I need to ask her something." Jérémie said, standing up from his chair.

"Something in English?" Aélita asked, glancing up only to realize she could've slapped the pile and get closer to wining when Ulrich bet her to it.

"Ya, and Xanadu." Jérémie said. "I'll be back."

The two walked out of the room and headed down the hall in silence.

"You like her, don't you?" Jérémie asked, surprising Odd.

"Maybe, why?" Odd asked, holding open the door for his friend so they could walk down the stairs.

"Well, it's just sad that it's so obvious that I've noticed." Jérémie said, walking down the stairs.

"Ya, defiantly when you can't even see the love of your life and she's been in front of you for about three some odd years." Odd said.

"W-what?" Jérémie asked, pretending not understanding.

"Never mind." Odd said as they walked down the hall towards April's room. "Come on, she never locks the door."

"She probably should, with all that's been happening." Jérémie said as the two walked in only to hear heavy breathing and movements, putting the two on high alert.

"April, you ok?" Odd called as they walked in, shutting the door behind them.

"Ouais, I am good." April said, an English video coming from her laptop that she had placed on top of the island.

Odd and Jérémie stopped at the end of the hall and watched as April practiced a martial art. April finished learning the kick before going over to the computer and stopped the video.

"May I ask what you're wearing?" Jérémie asked, looking at the girl's black spaghetti strapped shirt and black short shorts.

"Oh, this?" April asked, motioning to her attire. "It is my underwear."

Odd raised an eyebrow, not expecting her to be walking around and exercising in her underwear. "You wear boxers?"

"Girl version, but yes." April said.

"Sorry if we came at a wrong time." Jérémie said, trying not to look at April.

"Oh no. Hey, after Xana, I think all of my friends have gotten over little things, like nudity." April explained as she walked over into the kitchen and pulled out a bottle of water to drink.

"What happened?" Odd couldn't help but ask.

"Xana had used some type of liquid that disinagrated anything made out of cotton, which was most of what everyone was wearing." April explained, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. "Dignity when out the window when we had to fight naked. Well, everyone but Joro. We found out that he likes silk boxers."

"Ya, well I was just wondering about this that Joro sent to us." Jérémie said, trying to forget what she said about the boy as he placed the paper between him and April on the island, next to her laptop.

April looked at it and saw that it was all numbers. "I am sorry, I am no good with math, and that is what this all looks like."

"I just need to know what this word is at the bottom." Jérémie said, pointing to the very last word.

April looked at it closer and smiled. "I think that was Joro's way of saying not to let life go too fast. He sometimes puts that at the end of letters. Like his signature."

"Uh, ok." Jérémie said, not sure if he understood. "Well, thanks. Night."

"Night Jérémie." April said as the boy walked out of the apartment.

April put the bottle back in the fridge and walked over to her room to get some clothes on.

"It's sad that you wear something Jérémie hasn't gotten up to wearing yet." Odd said as he walking into the doorway to her room.

"What?" April asked, opening her dresser.

"Boxers."

"Owch."

"Hey. I've got a question."

April looked up from her dresser and smiled. "Yeah?"

"I was wondering if you had a boyfriend back at home." Odd said, sticking his hands in his pockets.

"Yes, I do." April said, turning her back to him as she took of the spaghetti strapped shirt, leaving her topless. "The sad part is, he does not know about Xanadu."

"Huh?"

"I have got a lot of friends that do not know about Xanadu. A few I would kill if they ever found out." April said, putting on her night cameo gown.

"Isn't it hard to keep all that from him?" Odd asked, going over to her bed and sitting down.

"Sometimes." April admitted. She pulled her underwear off and put on a new pair before turning around to look at him. "At first he thought I was cheating on him when I disappeared so much. I finally convinced him that it was nothing and to keep his mind at ease, I give him all the passwords to all my electronic things. The only thing he has no access to is my diary."

"Don't tell me, you write about Xanadu in it?" Odd guessed.

"Yes, but if anyone found the diary, I could pull it off as to just being a story idea." April said as she sat down on her desk chair. "People would believe that out of me."

"I can believe that." Odd said, smiling. "Maggie out again?"

"Yes, she said business in town." April said. "I think we all need to watch out, including Mr. Fumet."

"Who would've guessed he was in on the project?" Odd asked no one.

"Who is going to tell him?" April asked.

"Jérémie's got a program on his computer that copies the voice of anyone." Odd explained. "He's going to call Mr. Fumet somewhere around three and warn him."

"I hope Mr. Fumet will believe him." April said.

"We'll find out tomorrow." Odd said.

"Oh, tomorrow." April said, remembering something. "Do you not have a half day on Wednesdays?"

"Yes."

"After school, you want to shoot?" April asked.

"Sure, where?"

"I have talked to Mr. Delmas and he allowed me to rope off a section of the park. He just made me agree to allow anyone to join if they wanted to." April said.

"Did you tell Yumi?" Odd asked.

"Yes, she is bringing all of the equipment tomorrow morning. You guys are lucky you can have weapons at school."

"We've never had any problems with them before." Odd said.

"We have police at my school." April said.

"Why?"

"Fights, drugs. You know, I got in a fight last year. Cat pushed me when we were coming back from lunch and we were playing around. I ended up getting pushed into a black girl who pushed me back into Cat. Well, long story short, I ended up getting punched by that black girl. I got to use defense as my reasoning, but she got ten days of OSS."

"Shesh, glad I don't go there." Odd said, not bothering to ask what OSS was.

"You would be surprised how much you are protected in schools like this one." April said. She yawned, getting Odd's attention.

"I guess we should get some sleep." Odd said, standing up.

April stood up and hugged him, stopping him from moving.

"Huh? What's this for?" Odd asked, hugging her back.

April let go enough to look into his eyes, but still have her arms around his back. "I fell connected to you. I wish I was not dating Michael, because than I would be dating you, or at least asking you."

"And you're not one of those people that like to cheat?" Odd asked, hopefully.

"I only cheat with cartoons." April said. "Anyway, it would only be able to last for a half a week. I leave on Sunday."

"I know, but I can still do this and you can't say you're dating me and cheating on Michael." Odd said, pulling her closer to him and kissing her on the lips.

April was surprised for a moment, only to grip him closer and keep him there for as long as they could stand.

"April? Are you still up?" Aélita asked, opening the door to April's room.

April and Odd ripped apart as Aélita walked in, a towel and a bag in her hands.

"Uh, I just wanted to know if I could use your shower?" Aélita asked, wondering what had just happened between her friends.

"Sure." April said, smiling as she put her arms behind her back.

Aélita walked out of the room and into the bathroom across the hallway, leaving Odd and April looking at each other with smiles of embarrassment.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Wednesday

Jérémie looked down at his clock on his computer and saw it was close to three in the morning. He yawned before opening a program on the computer and readjusting his mike. He dialed a number from a piece of paper and waited for the man to answer.

"Do you have any idea what time it is?!" Mr. Fumet's voice asked from the other line.

"I'm sorry for the timing but I have something of vital importance to tell you." Jérémie said, his voice masked by the computer to make it sound like Franz Hopper's. "Do you remember the project: Carthage, Mr. Gilles Fumet?"

"How do you know that name? Who are you?" Mr. Fumet asked, started about who he was talking to.

"Listen to my voice and you might figure it out." Jérémie said. "But I can't talk long. People are looking for you. Namely the FBI. One of their people are living at the school you are teaching at. She will be leaving this Sunday with the exchange student. As far as I know, the exchange student has no knowledge of the military project, but the FBI is trying to get rid of all of us. I have to go. They might have connected into this line by now." Jérémie hung up and sighed in relief of finishing that. He closed that program and was about to open another one that he was working on when a widow popped up.

"Jérémie, go to bed. I know you're up." it read. He looked towards the sender and saw that it was Aélita and smiled.

"I need to get some work done. And I just finished calling Mr. Fumet." Jérémie typed to her.

"But you need to get some sleep, Jérémie."

"What are you doing up at this hour?"

"I had another nightmare." Aélita admitted.

"Was it the one with the wolves?"

"Yes, but this time I think it was just my fears because instead of them chasing Mr. Pück, they were chasing you."

"What happened?"

"You were running away, through the park in town, and they chased you through to the sewers."

"I'm guessing I didn't survive?"

"No, they got you when you were going up the ladder to the bridge."

"Well, I'm fine now. If you want I could get over there."

"No, we both need sleep. Defiantly you."

"I know. Good night Aélita."

"Bonne nuit."

Jérémie smiled as he turned off his screens and got up, out of his chair. He went over to his bed and sat down, taking off his glasses.

-.-.-.-

"Hey April, you mind if I use your shower?" Jérémie asked, getting April's attention away from putting her hair up in a ponytail.

April turned around to see him standing in her doorway. "Huh, oh, yes. Sure."

"Thanks." Jérémie said, turning around and walking into the bathroom.

April put a rubber band in her hair to make it stay just as Odd walked into her room.

"I had a strange dream last night." Odd said, sitting down on her bed.

"So did I." April said, turning to Odd. "I actually locked that door and my friends knocked."

"Sorry." Odd said, realizing she was talking about him and whoever was in the shower that had just started. "Anyway, you want to know about my dream?"

"Sure." April said, sitting down in the chair to her desk and putting her feet up on the bed, next to Odd.

"You know about how the factory is set up? Well, there was a level underneath the scanner room we didn't know about and so we started to explore it and found out that a gang of bikers had been using it as a race way."

"Without seeing the lab, the scanner room, or the super-calculator?" April guessed, crossing her arms.

"I guess. I never found-"

"AAAAhhhh!"

A mettle on mettle sound came from the bathroom before a big thud.

"Huh?" Odd asked as the two stood up in surprise.

"Oh no, Jérémie!" April cried, running out of her room and to the bathroom door. She grabbed the door handle and found it locked. She banged the door calling out, "Jérémie!?"

"I've got it." Odd said, stepping back from the door. "Jérémie, if you can hear me, get away from the door!" Odd yelled onto the door before kicking the door down.

"Jérémie!" April cried, seeing the blond haired boy on the floor, face first as if he had fallen out of the bath tub. She ran over to him and noticed his sides were burnt red. She turned to Odd and ordered, "Get the nurse. He's gotten burned from the shower."

Odd nodded his head and ran out of the bathroom.

April went around Jérémie and turned the shower to cold, feeling the water was burning hot. She put her finger under the water, expecting the water to have dropped only to find hot water still running through and it felt to her as if it was hotter than before. She turned the shower off and looked back at Jérémie, grabbing his towel and laying it over his butt.

"Uhg."

April moved so that she was in front of his head and realized he was back into conciseness. "Hold on Jérémie. You wacked you head when you fell out of the shower. Odd has gone to get the nurse."

"Thanks for the towel." Jérémie said, feeling it covering him.

"What happened?"

"I don't really know. The water all of a sudden got hot and wouldn't cool down."

"I noticed. I was trying to give you a cold towel, but all I was getting was hot water. The water heater must be malfunctioning."

"Well, when I was trying to get out, I guess I slipped, because it all went black after that." Jérémie said.

"You are just lucky the floor was cleaned yesterday. Odd made a mess of it." April said, smiling.

The front door opened, getting their attentions. April stood up and saw Odd leading Yolanda.

"Where is he?" Yolanda asked.

"Right here." April said, pointing to the floor of the bathroom as she stepped out of the way.

"Do you have any cold water at all?" Yolanda asked, leaning down to Jérémie on the floor.

"No, I can go upstairs and get some for you though." April said.

"Thank you." Yolanda said. She turned towards Jérémie, kneeling down to get to his face. "Jérémie, tell me what happened."

April went into the kitchen and grabbed a bowl. She turned to Odd and asked, "The girl's bathroom is on the second floor, no?"

Odd nodded his head.

"Thanks." April closed her eyes and said, "Teleportation."

The green light covered around her, sending her to the door of the second floor of the stairs.

April opened the door and walked into the floor, looking for the bathroom.

April saw Aélita walking in her direction with a curious face. "What happened?"

"Jérémie had an accident down stairs and I need some cold water. Where's the bathroom?"

"It's this way." Aélita said, turning around to take her back the way she had come. "What happened to Jérémie?"

"The water heater in my apartment messed up and gave him total hot water. It burned him a little." April admitted.

"Is he ok?" Aélita asked as she opened the door and let April into the bathroom first. April went to a faucet and put the bowl under it, turning on the cold water.

"Yolanda is looking at him right now." April explained. She turned off the water and looked at Aélita. "That is why we need the cold water."

"I'll be down as soon as I can." Aélita said.

"Ok, see you there." April said, closing her eyes again and said, "Teleportation."

April appeared, back in the kitchen. She walked as fast as she could and made it to the bathroom door, only to see it had been closed. She looked at Odd, who was standing next to the door.

"Jérémie's not one for showing his stuff." Odd said, guessing her face.

"Understandable." April said. She knocked on the door and waited.

A second passed before the door opened.

"That was quicker than expected." Yolanda said, taking the bowl. "Thank you."

As Yolanda moved out of the way to shut the door, April got a glimpse of Jérémie's chest, a towel wrapped around his waist to block out the rest of the burnt skin that went down his chest from the water.

April turned to Odd and said, "Aélita will be down here any minute now."

"I better call Ulrich." Odd said, pulling out his cell. "I was supposed to go back up there by now."

"He is just lucky your group do not hug a lot." April said. "His whole front half is burned."

"It's pronounced burnt. With a "T"." Odd corrected.

"Thanks." April said, remembering the real reason she was in France. To learn to speak French better than before.

"Hey Ulrich. When you can, get down to April's room." Odd said into his phone. "No, she's fine. Jérémie got burnt." He hung up as April headed over to what looked like a closet. "What are you doing?"

April opened the closet to find the water heater. "I know how to work on an American water heater and am hoping the French is not too different." She twisted a screw with her fingers only to find it stiff. "Odd, could you go into the kitchen and find me a screw driver?"

"Sure." Odd said, walking into the kitchen area. He came back and handed her a flat head.

"Thanks."

"What are you doing?" Odd asked, seeing her unscrew a screw that was holding a plate.

"Inside here is a switch to control how much hot water can come out." April explained. "I am thinking the switch has been pushed all the way over to heat."

April took off the plate and looked inside. "Ok, maybe not." April said, reaching her hand inside and turning the switch to cold. She turned her head to Odd and asked, "Could you try the water?"

"Ya." Odd said, glad to be helping,

"Don't get burnt!" April called as she heard the water start up.

The water turned off and Odd walked out, shaking his hand as if it hurt.

"Did not work?" April guessed, seeing his finger was red.

"Nope." Odd said.

April sighed as she turned around and closed the water heater just as the door opened and Aélita and Ulrich walked in.

"How's Jérémie doing?" Ulrich asked. Aélita was behind him with worry written on her face.

April closed the door to the water heater as Yolanda opened the door to the bathroom. "He'll be alright." Yolanda said as she walked out with her first aid box in her hand. She shut the door behind her so Jérémie could get dressed. "It's just as if he had gotten sunburn. He'll be good in about a week or so."

"Could you ask someone to look at this water heater?" April asked. "The switch is not working."

"Don't worry, I will." Yolanda said before walking out of the apartment.

The bathroom door opened and Jérémie walked out, his hand holding onto the front of his shirt as if it hurt to keep it touching his skin.

"Are you ok?" Aélita asked.

"A little burnt, but I'm good." Jérémie said. "Just nobody touch me for a while."

"Yolanda told us it was like sunburn." Ulrich said.

A growl got their attentions all to Odd.

"I'm hungry!" Odd whined.

"You are always hungry!" April said, smiling as the five started to head out of the apartment.

-.-.-.-

"You know, Jérémie looks really close to Milo." April said as Yumi walked over.

"What?" Yumi asked, sitting her stuff down as she had just gotten there.

"Milo, from Les Mystères D'Afred. He's the skunk." Odd said.

"You know, now that you say that, he does look like Jérémie." Ulrich said, looking at their friend.

"I'm missing something, because I've never even heard of the show." Jérémie said. "Is it American?"

"No, actually it is French." April said. "They play it on France 5."

"That's why we've never heard of it." Aélita said.

April opened her bag and pulled out a sheet of paper and a pencil. "Here is Jérémie." April said, drawing a quick sketch of Jérémie's head, glasses and all. "And here is Milo."

"They do look a lot alike." Yumi said, looking at April's drawings.

"You're a good drawer." Aélita said.

"Thank you." April said, turning the paper so that they could all see.

"It does look like a skunk version of you, Jérémie!" Aélita said, smiling.

"It is uncanny." Jérémie said, not sure what to think.

Ring Ring!

Everyone gathered their things and were about to head off to class when April remembered it was Wednesday. She went over to Yumi and asked, "Hey Yumi, did you remember the bows and arrows?"

"Yes, I went ahead and dropped them off with Delmas so I wouldn't have to carry them around all day." Yumi said.

"Oh, ok. Thank you." April said. "See you!"

"Bye guys!" Yumi said, walking away towards her first class.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

"Alright, the basics." April said, standing in front of her five friends with a bow in her hand. "Since I am still under the 4-H rules, I have to go over the safety and what everything is called. Catch me if I get my French and my English mixed."

April went over the limbs and knocks of a bow and then went to the arrow, explaining about the pointer fletching and why it is a different color.

"Do any of you know the whistle commands?" April asked, sitting down her equipment and picking up the whistle attached to a green 4-H lantern.

"It's backwards, isn't it?" Odd asked. "Two means to get to the line, one is to start firing and three is to retrieve the arrows."

"Have you taken a class before?" April asked, looking at him, surprised.

"Back when I lived in New Zealand with my grandparents." Odd said, smiling.

"Well, yes. And four whistles?"

"Oh, I know that. Everyone stops because of an emergency." Ulrich said. "And anyone can call it."

"Nice." April said. She put her hands on her hips and looked at the two boys. "Now, what about safety gear, smarty-pants?"

"Safety gear?" Odd and Ulrich asked, as if they had never heard of the two words.

"You need at least two things." Aélita said, rolling her eyes at her friends with a smile on her face. "An arm guard and finger tabs."

"Thanks Aélita, at least _somebody_ knows about _safety gear_." April said, looking towards Odd and Ulrich. "Does anyone know the proper way of holding a bow to fire?"

"I do!" Odd said, raising his hand as if in class.

"Anyone who was not in a class in a while?" April asked.

"Ya, I do." Yumi said, picking up a bow. She stood where her left hand was holding the handle of the bow and her right hand was "holding" the string at her chin to form a T.

"If you cannot see it, in America, we call this the T formation because it looks like a T." April looked at Yumi and saw that her chest was pointed out as if she had been taught by a man. "Oh, Yumi, just a note. Since we are girls, we have more to worry about, chest wise. You were taught by a man, were you not?" April said, lowering her voice incase Yumi felt awkward about talking about that type of stuff.

Yumi dropped the bow and looked towards her. "Yes, back in Japan."

"You might want to watch it, though." April said. "This come from firsthand experience, it hurts."

"Thanks for the tidbit." Yumi said, sitting the bow back down with the others.

"Any question?" April said, turning back towards the others.

"Ya, can we start shooting?" Odd asked.

April smiled at Odd as they got their gear on and distributed bows and arrows.

TTWWEEETTT! TTWWEEETTT!

"To the line." April called, taking her spot as range safety officer.

The five went to the line and stood to get ready to shoot.

-.-.-.-

"Oh Odd, I am so sorry!" April said for the hundredth time as she wiped the scratch with the antiseptent-covered swab.

"It's ok." Odd said, smiling before she dabbed it again, sending him into pain. "How could anyone predict that the arrow would fly like that?"

"But it cut you on your forehead." April said.

"It's ok. It doesn't hurt all that much." Odd said.

April sat down the bottle and threw away the swab before sitting on her bed next to Odd. "But you like it? Shooting, that is."

"Yes!" Odd said, smiling at her. "And it'll help us on Lyoko. But who would've guessed Sissi would join us."

"At least she was better than me, and I am the teacher!" April said.

"But you took care of me." Odd said, looking at her.

April smiled back at him before realizing how he meant that. "Well, you're welcome."

"I wish you weren't dating." Odd admitted.

"I know you do." April said, hugging Odd. Odd smiled as he hugged her back. He glance out the window and saw a red moon.

"I never knew the moon could go red." Odd said as April let go of him.

"In the last book of the Bible, they say it is a sign of the end of the world." April said, getting up and walking over to her light switch to turn off the light so that the red light of the moon would shine in. "It is called a blood moon."

"It's nice." Odd said, putting his arm around her waist.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Thursday

"Where's April?" Aélita asked as she walked up to Odd and Ulrich as they headed out of the dormitory.

"Haven't seen her this morning." Odd said. "I figured she went to breakfast."

"She's not there." Aélita said. "I'll check her room."

"We're coming with you." Ulrich said, looking at Odd.

The three turned back and walked back into the dormitory, heading for April's apartment.

Aélita opened the door, calling in, "April? Maggie? Is anyone in here?"

"Qui est-ce!?" April's voice called out in English.

"April, c'est nous!" Odd called as they went towards her voice. "Odd, Aélita, et Ulrich!"

"Non! Je ne sais pas qui vous avez!" April called out.

The three entered the living room and found the girl holding onto a pillow on the sofa.

"What does she mean, she doesn't know us?" Odd asked.

"I wonder if her memory's acting up again?" Aélita offered, "Yumi mentioned she had been in a car accident that messed with her memory."

"April!" Jérémie's voice called as the door opened. Jérémie rushed in and stopped dead as he saw the group gathered in the living room. "What's going on?"

"April doesn't seem to know us, or French." Ulrich explained.

"That would explain this I got from Joro." Jérémie said, handing Aélita the paper in his hand. "Xana activated a tower on Xanadu that is erasing their memories. Joro sent this right before it affected him."

"You both figured out the connection between Lyoko and Xanadu?" Aélita asked, reading the paper. Jérémie nodded his head.

"So we have to go to Xanadu?" Odd asked, hopefully.

"Yes, call Yumi and tell her to meet us at the factory." Jérémie said, starting to head out.

"Got it." Ulrich said, pulling out his cell.

Odd walked over to April and tried to convince her to come with them. April looked at him as if he was crazy, but followed, leaving the pillow on the sofa.

-.-.-.-

"We're here, Jérémie." Ulrich said, standing on the edge of the mountain sector.

"Alright, according to Joro, all I have to do to activate the program is to type in Xanadu. X-A-N-A-D-U." Jérémie said, typing it in.

Odd looked around, looking for an orb of some kind.

"There! That's our transport." Aélita said, pointing to a black square moving towards them.

"Looks more like something Xana created." Odd said.

"That's what Joro gave me." Jérémie said as the square covered over them, sending them through wires and network.

-.-.-.-

"Ugh! That thing's worst that the transporter to sector 5!" Odd said, holding onto his gut.

"Ulrich! You look hilarious!" Yumi said, looking at the boy next to her.

Ulrich looked at her, wondering what she was talking about. Then he saw her digital entity. "You don't look all that normal yourself."

"April did mention that Xanadu was a little more cartoony, I guess you'd say." Aélita said.

"Nice parashoot pants, Ulrich." Odd said, covering his mouth before laughing.

"You should see yourself." Ulrich said. "You're a Neko!"

"I know I'm a cat." Odd said.

"No, you've got cat ears as well as your more cat-ified outfit." Yumi said.

"Are you done now?" Jérémie asked. "There is a tower to deactivate."

"Alright, where's this tower?" Ulrich asked, looking around at the more earth-like surroundings. He noticed behind them was a waterfall.

"According to this, it's in the mountain sector. You're in the forest sector." Jérémie said. "It looks as if it really is a proto type of Lyoko. Same sectors and everything."

"That's how they explained it." Yumi said, playing with the strings to the long sleeves of her robe.

"Any way you can program our vehicles?" Aélita asked.

"No, the program's too advance." Jérémie said. "I'm having enough problems keeping track of your location."

"We haven't moved." Odd said.

"Exactly."

"Well, how do we get to the mountains?" Ulrich asked.

"Follow the cords Xana uses to activates his towers." Jérémie said. "The wires connect the different sectors. Xanadu is set up as if it's on an island. There are only a few towers on the whole world."

"Got it Jérémie." Odd said as the four started to run towards the way the cords were going. "How's April doing?"

"She could be better." Jérémie said. "Xana's making her forget everything. And I mean, everything."

"Something's I don't want to remember." Ulrich said, putting his hand on his saber. "Come on, let's find this tower."

"Do I want to know what he's talking about?" Yumi asked Aélita as they started to run towards the tower.

Aélita shook her head, knowing what Ulrich was talking about.

"Warning, something's coming up in front of you." Jérémie said.

"Any idea what it is?" Odd asked as they stopped running.

"Not really." Jérémie admitted.

"There! That over there!" Ulrich said, trying to pull out his saber only to find it 'glued' to his sheft. "Uh, Jérémie, why can't I get my saber out?"

"How should I know, a million pop-up windows just appeared when you noticed the monster." Jérémie said as he typed in the windows to figure out what they were for. "What does it look like?"

"It looks like one of Xana's specters." Odd said, raising his paw only to find he couldn't shoot. "Uh, I seem to be a little short on weaponry also, Einstein."

"Hold on for a moment." Jérémie said. "Apparently, in Xanadu, I have to load each one of your weapons every time they are needed. Ulrich, I just got your saber charged. You should be able to use it now."

Ulrich pulled out his saber just in time to realize the specter was almost at them. He swung his saber through the ghost, cutting it in half. The ghost fell to the ground before fazing through.

"Ulrich, your sword is blue." Yumi said, realizing the katana looked different.

Ulrich held it in front of his face and noticed the 1's and 0's making up his sword.

"Odd, Yumi, both of your weapons are fully loaded and ready for use." Jérémie said. "Aélita, something's messing with your weapon. I can't tell if it's Xana or if it's the programming issue."

"It'll really be like the old days." Aélita said, taking her old place behind her friends.

"There's the tower!" Yumi said, seeing the tip of the tower over in the distance.

"Let's go than." Odd said, starting to run towards the tower.

His friend's followed behind him, keeping up with his speed. They followed the path in till Odd stopped, making his friends run into his back.

"Odd! What's your problem?" Ulrich asked, standing up from trying to avoid his friend's backside.

"I don't know. Hold on a second." Odd said, holding his hand up to say stay still.

Yumi looked around, her hands ready to fight, remembering Odd used to have Future Flash and was taking his words seriously.

CRACK!

"LOOK OUT!" Aélita called, seeing a tree about to fall down on Odd and Ulrich.

The two boys looked up and saw the tree in enough time to nearly miss it.

"I guess my old power's coming back." Odd said, standing up.

"And if we had kept on going, we would've missed it." Ulrich said, dusting off his pants.

"No, _we_ would've been under the tree." Yumi said, motioning to herself and Aélita.

"Let's just get the tower de-activated." Aélita said.

"There's some specters on their way to you." Jérémie said. "And I think they're the ones who knocked over the tree, so watch out. They're smarter in a way when it comes to booby traps."

"Thanks Jérémie." Ulrich said, pulling out his katana.

"Ulrich! Behind you!" Aélita cried, seeing a black ghost racing towards her friend from behind.

Ulrich spun around and swiped the air with his sword, making contact with the ghost.

"Yumi!" Odd called, pulling up his paw and shooting just past her head, aimed at the specter.

The specter glowed yellow before it broke into three pieces and fell into the ground.

"Any more on your screen, Jérémie?" Yumi asked, looking up.

"No, but then again, the one Odd just destroyed wasn't showing up, so keep an eye out." Jérémie said, typing on his keyboard. "Joro wasn't kidding when he said that place needed an upgrade."

Ulrich put his sword back in the sheft and started towards the tower with his friends.

"This place seems so much like Earth." Aélita said, looking around as they ran.

"I think that's what they wanted then." Yumi said.

"Yumi! Behind you." Jérémie said, getting them all to stop for a moment.

"What Jérémie? There's nothing there." Yumi said, looking at the forest they had just come through and noticed they were on the edge of the territory with only a river between them and the tower.

"I saw something. I don't know what happened, but it _was_ there." Jérémie said.

"You all go on, I'll keep watch for this specter." Yumi said to Ulrich, Odd, and Aélita.

"Good luck, Yumi." Ulrich said as the three of them jumped from wire to wire across the river towards the mountain sector of the island.

"Thanks." Yumi called to him as she pulled out her fans again, ready to protect her friends from whatever it was behind them.

-.-.-.-

"Zut! This is where all of them are, huh." Ulrich said as they saw the tower with about ten ghosts around it from the top of a mountain.

"You ready to be a ghost hunter now?" Odd asked, acting like he was cocking his laser arrows.

"AAAAHHHH!"

"What was that?" Aélita asked, turned around to face the trail they had made coming up the mountain.

"It sounded like Yumi!" Ulrich said, standing up from his kneeling position.

"Ulrich, she's been devitalized." Jérémie said as he watched his screens with her card. "The specter's coming your way."

"And it didn't sound like getting killed on Xanadu was all that fun." Odd said.

"Is she alright?" Ulrich asked, getting back down on his kneels so that he wouldn't give away their position if he hadn't already.

"Ulrich, I'm fine." Yumi said.

"Where are you?" Jérémie asked.

"I'm in the factory in New Mexico." Yumi said.

"She didn't go back to France?" Odd asked.

"Makes since, since Xanadu is in New Mexico, but how do I get back?" Yumi asked.

"I think you'll get back when I do the return to the past." Jérémie said.

"Watch out, the ghosts have noticed you." Yumi said, sitting down in the chair Joro had been in when they were talking to each other. She looked into the screen and saw a group of ghosts fly away from the tower and towards her friends.

"Ya, I see that." Ulrich said.

"Hey, you remember that movie we watched not long ago?" Odd asked, standing up.

"The one with the gladiators?" Ulrich asked.

"Yap, you want to?"

"Why not." Ulrich stood up, taking out his katana and raised it above his head. "Charge!"

The two boys ran down the mountain, aimed at the ghosts heading towards them.

"Laser Arrow!" Odd cried, shooting at the ghosts.

Three of them disappeared as one arrow shot threw the three.

"Nice shot Odd." Jérémie said, surprised.

"If you think that was nice, try this on for size." Ulrich said. "SuperSprint!"

Ulrich ran to the edge of the next mountain and jumped off, using the momentum to rake his katana through the remaining five ghosts that were traveling in the air towards Aélita and Odd.

Ulrich landed next to Odd, and put his sword back in its sheft.

"Show off." Odd said, looking at his friend.

Ulrich smirked at Odd before looking behind them and said to Aélita, "Come on, before Xana sends more ghosts."

Aélita got up and ran with them towards the tower.

-.-.-.-

"Ugh."

Yumi looked around, trying to find the source of the mown. "Is anyone there?" Yumi asked in English.

"Who is it?" a voice asked.

Yumi got up from the chair and looked around, trying to find the person who's voice sounded familiar from when April was talking to her friends. "Mack, is that you?"

"Mack? I don't recognize that name." the voice said as Yumi walked up to a boy on the ground.

He turned towards her and said, "But, then again, I don't even know my own name."

" _You_ are Mack, if I remember correctly." Yumi said, helping him up. "Xana has erased your memory."

"Xana? Who's that? Some evil villain from a cartoon?"

"Somewhat, you've been fighting him since the summer started." Yumi said, remembering what April said.

"And you are who again?" Mack asked, walking over to the computer screens.

"I'm Yumi, but you've only met me through video chat."

"So where are you from?"

"France."

"Funny, you reminded me of something Asian, but I can't think of it right now."

"I'm born Japanese." Yumi said.

"Yumi! Quel-est-ce passe?" Jérémie's voice asked from the mike.

"Who's that?" Mack asked.

"That's Jérémie." Yumi explained, going back towards the chair. She put on the mike and said in French, "Ya Jérémie?"

"What happened? I've been calling you for a while. I can't seem to set up the return to the past." Jérémie said.

"I think I might be able to do it from over here." Yumi said, looking at all the keyboards attached to the supercomputer.

"Did April tell you how to?" Jérémie asked.

"No, but she mentioned that the hardest thing to remember was the return to the past, so maybe there's some notes around here." Yumi said, starting to look underneath the table holding the screens.

"Is this it?" Mack asked, holding a sticky note his hand.

Yumi took it from his hand and read it. "Yes, thanks."

She followed the instructions written down on the paper before hitting enter. "Return to the past, now!"

A white bubble appeared to come out of the screen, blinding Yumi and Mack.

Yumi put up her arm to block out the light only to find that she was back in her room and grabbing her bag so that she could walk with Hiroki to school.

"Yumi, you coming?" Hiroki asked from outside her door.

"Coming." Yumi said, walking towards the door and opening it to find Hiroki on the other side.

-.-.-.-

"What?" Yumi asked as she got up with her friends.

"No, Jérémie doesn't remember a thing from the last attack." Odd said.

"It's like when we first found the supercomputer." Ulrich said.

"Well, since you went to Xanadu and I have only been to Lyoko, it all makes sense." Jérémie said, thinking over all that had happened.

"But everything's back to normal?" Yumi asked, seeing April sitting next to Aélita on the bench.

"Yes, though Xana has messed my memory up so that I know as much as Jérémie does about what happened." April said. "All I remember is that I woke up twice today. Oh, and good news, my water heater is fixed!"

"Well, that _is_ good news." Aélita said.

Ring

"Shoot, class. See you." Yumi said, walking off towards her class.

"Who do we have today?" April asked, standing up and grabbing her bag.

"Maths." Odd said.

"You people never have the same class list twice, do you?" April asked. "How do you ever remember what your schedule is?"

"You just kind of learn it." Ulrich said, putting his bag on his shoulder. "How's yours?"

"You have an Odd day and an Even day. One, three, five, and seven are on the Odd days and two, four, six, and seven are done on the Even days." April explained.

"Seven's not even." Jérémie said.

"Try telling that to the American School Board System." April said. "They are trying to make sure that my generation does not know anything for when we will be running the US."

"Well, are you any good in maths?" Aélita asked as they walked into the classroom.

"What type?"

"Algebra."

"Which part?" April asked, taking her seat next to Odd.

"What do you mean, which part?" Ulrich asked.

"Oh, you have all of it in one class?" April asked.

"I forgot a lot of other schools do that." Odd said. "Separate Algebra into two parts."

"What is sad is that I have already had two classes of Algebra." April said. "I stink in the class."

"Welcome to my life." Ulrich said. "I can't even spell."

"This may sound sad, but I can spell French better than I can spell English." April admitted.

Ring!

The class quieted down as Mrs. Meyers walked in.


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

"How come you can't use you left hand with a fork?" Odd asked, noticing April had to switch hands with which one had the knife and which one had the fork.

"For some reason, Americans have to eat with their dominate hand." April explained, stabbing her lunch steak. "Though, I can eat with chopsticks with my left hand."

"You know how to use chopsticks?" Yumi asked, surprised.

"Ya."

"I keep forgetting you're not the normal American." Jérémie said.

"Oh, since Saturday is my last full day here, I was wondering if I could make you all an American dinner?" April asked.

"Sure." Odd said, smiling at her.

"Ya, anything with food, and you've already got Odd." Ulrich said. "But, sure, why not?"

"Cool." April said.

"What are we having?" Yumi asked.

"It is a surprise." April said. "I just realized, it is lunch. Why are we having steaks!?"

"I don't know." Aélita asked. "We normally have this for dinner."

"Oh, Rosa ended up with an extra shipment of steak." Odd said, his mouth still full of steak.

"Hey, I don't mean this to be embarrassing, but I do have a question." Yumi asked, not sure how to ask this.

"Alright."

"How come you never use the restrooms during school?"

"Oh, that is to blame on my school back home." April said, snickering. "If they are not vandalized, they smell so badly that you can smell them from the other end of the hallway. And it is most of the time smelling of weed or pot. I just do not bother with them anymore."

"That's disgusting." Aélita said, scrunching up her face.

"Hey, Ulrich." April said, looking up at the boy across the table from her. "I heard you practiced Pencak Silat, non?"

"Ya, you want to learn?"

"Actually, I have a teacher back home, but how do you do it?" April asked.

"Do what?"

"Those high kicks. Those hurt _my_ thighs; I would hate to feel it through a guy's body."

"It hurts, trust me." Jérémie said.

April looked at him, surprised.

"We got him to start learning some after Xana started attacking." Odd said, covering his mouth to stop laughing. He gave up and busted out as he tried to say, "You should've seen him after the first day!"

"Please, don't." Jérémie said, blushing.

Aélita looked at him, smiling in sympathy.

"Oh, don't worry Jérémie; I'm sure April's been dying to say something to Ulrich, other than that about Pencak Silat." Odd said.

"What?" Ulrich asked.

"Oh, it is more like an American issue." April said, not sure she was supposed to be saying this. She took a bite out of her steak before continuing. "You know how your book bag is an over-the-head version. Well, the only _guy_ I know who has a bag like that, well, he is gay-And do not take this the wrong way because I know you are not gay! It is just, he is just a she now, or well, an it -"

"Ulrich _dear_!" Sissi called as she walked over with Hervé and Nicolas behind her, cutting off what April was saying.

"What, Sissi dear?" Ulrich asked, mocking her as he turned his head to look up at her.

"I'm guessing you haven't looked at Millie and Tamiya's new Kadic News, have you?" Sissi asked, holding the newspaper under her tray.

"No, not really." Ulrich said, looking back at his steak as he tried to finish eating it.

"Well, I've heard there's some real good juicy information about a certain someone." Sissi said, her eyes going over to Yumi as if laughing at her. "Here, you can have my copy."

Sissi dropped the paper onto the table next to Ulrich and walked away with Hervé and Nicolas following behind. "I said you should've gone with me." Sissi said just so that Ulrich would barely hear her.

"How come you always let her call you Ulrich dear?" April asked.

"If we say anything, she goes running to her father." Aélita explained as Ulrich opened the paper and saw what Sissi was talking about.

"Uh, Yumi, you're not going to like this." Ulrich said, looking at the paper in disbelief.

"What is it?" Yumi asked, standing up and walking around the table so that she could see it. "You've got to be kidding me! Where on earth did she find that picture?!" She looked at Ulrich and asked, "You really didn't, did you?"

"No!" Ulrich said, surprised she had to ask.

"What picture?" April and Odd asked at the same time.

Ulrich put the paper down on the center of the table and let his friends see the photo of, what looked like, Sissi above him about to kiss him.

"It is, uh, I do not know the French word for it." April said, trying to remember what it was called. "It is where the person puts it to computer and re-creates it."

"Photoshopped." Odd said, looking at her.

"Yes. But it is very obvious. Even in the background." April said. She pointed to a spot between Ulrich and Sissi and showed them a desk that was not in a straight line. "She must have taken a photo of herself in that room, and then taken a photo of the part where Ulrich would have been. It is a simple thing to get right in Paint, much less anything else."

"How did you notice that?" Yumi asked, pointing to the, almost a millimeter off, table.

"My mother used to work at a photo place." April admitted. "She taught me a few things to look for. My only question is, where did she get a photo of you looking like that?"

"I think I know." Ulrich said, looking at Odd.

"Don't look at me, I didn't give her one like that." Odd said, defending himself. "She must've snuck in while you were having one of your dreams again."

"Sometimes I want to ask, than I think, maybe I'm better off not knowing." Yumi said to Aélita and April.

"That's the best way to go a lot of the time." Aélita said.

"Hey, wait. Today is Thursday, non?" April asked, looking at the top coiner of the paper.

"Ya, why?" Jérémie asked, looking at her and then the paper to see what she was talking about. "Hey, ya, I see what you're talking about. This is tomorrow's issue."

"And with what I have seen of Sissi, I would not be surprised if she made this herself. No help of the editor of the newspaper." April said.

"That's Sissi for you." Odd said, sitting back down and putting his hands behind his head. "Always trying to mess us up somehow."

"Well, now that we've gotten that all cleared up..." Yumi said, taking the paper from Ulrich and balling it up for the trash.

"Hey, where's my mom?" Aélita asked, just realizing she hadn't seen her for a while now.

"I do not know." April said. "The last time I saw her, she was coming back from a thing in town."

"Did you ever see her come out of her room?" Jérémie asked.

"Um, now that you mention it, no, I do not remember seeing her come out of her room." April said. "You do not think..."

"Come on, let's check on her." Yumi said, getting up.

-.-.-.-

"Mrs. Maggie?" April asked as she knocked on the door to the woman's room.

"Mrs. Stone?" Ulrich asked, louder incase April's voice was too silent.

"Are you in here?" April asked, turning the door handle and pushing open the door.

April walked in enough for everyone to at least look in, only to find that the room was empty.

"She even took her clothes." Jérémie said, walking over to the closet to check.

"I wonder what happened." Yumi said, walking over towards the desk and opening the draws to see if anything was left.

"Maybe the FBI found something." Aélita said, not sure.

"Hey, there's a paper stuck in here." Yumi said, trying to pull out the piece without ripping it. "Got it." She pulled out the paper and saw that it was in English. "April, you're quicker at translating English."

"Not today, I am not. I tried to read a book I brought with me and I could not understand a word of it." April admitted.

"I've got it." Odd said, taking the paper from Yumi. He glanced over it before translating, his face taking surprise.

"What is it?" Ulrich asked.

"'Dear Lyoko Warriors and April. I know about all of it. Lyoko, Xanadu, and even O-ku-se-tsu-zoku.' What's Okusetsuzoku?"

"It's Japanese for electronic place." Yumi explained.

"I think I remember hearing about it." Jérémie said. "It's an idea that was never supposed to exist."

"But then again, Lyoko and Xanadu were never supposed to exist." April said.

"'This may come as a surprise, but I've been working with the FBI to stop all of these virtual worlds from continuing to work. I'll be back on Sunday to pick April up. And Odd...'" Odd's voice trailed off as he read the rest to himself.

"She might be heading to the factory." Ulrich said.

"And New Mexico." April said, realizing she was talking about destroying the three worlds.

"Too bad we have no contacts with the Japanese force." Aélita said.

"Maybe we do." Yumi said, thinking. She looked at April and asked, "Do you still have those photos of the files."

"Ya. I will go get them." April said, running off towards her room.

"You think you might know one of the people?" Aélita asked.

"It's a long shot, I know." Yumi said. "But I'm still in contact with my old friends."

"Here it is!" April said as she rushed in with the camera. She handed it to Yumi and let her flip through the photos.

"Oh no." Yumi said, looking at one photo.

"What? What is it?" Odd asked, trying to get on his tippy toes to see over Yumi's shoulders.

"You see this name here." Yumi said, turning so that all six of them could see the file name.

"Yayama Suri." April read. "You know her?"

"Suri-chan and I were best friends before I moved to France." Yumi said. "I still e-mail her." she looked at April, "Could I use your laptop?"

"By all means!" April said, walking out of the room. "The sooner she gets warned, the sooner we might know where Maggie went off to. And I have got to warn the Xanadu Defenders."

"I'm going to head off to the factory, check it out." Ulrich said.

"I'll come with you." Jérémie said. "Check the security camera."

Jérémie and Ulrich started to head towards the door.

"I'll come with you." Aélita said, following the two boys.

-.-.-.-

"Ulrich, be careful." Aélita said as Ulrich headed up the ladder towards the bridge. "The FBI could be up there."

Ulrich looked down and smiled at the girl. "Thanks Princess." Ulrich looked back up and put his hand on the man hole cover. He slowly pushed it up and got it so that he could see the factory. "It's all clear."

Ulrich slid it all the way off before getting up to the bridge.

Jérémie and Aélita followed close behind and stood on the bridge behind him.

"What is it, Ulrich?" Jérémie asked, wondering why he hadn't started to walk towards the factory.

"Something doesn't feel right." Ulrich said. He turned around, feeling something.

"You're right, Ulrich. Something isn't right." Maggie's voice said as she walked out from behind a bush. In her hand was a gun pointed at the three as tears ran down her checks.

"Ey!" Aélita squeaked in surprise as her hands went up to her mouth.

"It's because of your little group, that I've lost my job!" Maggie cried out.

Jérémie noticed something moving on the ground by the bush she had been hiding at and realized it was a beer bottle. He stepped forward, hands up to show her he had nothing and said, "Maggie, we're sorry. Please put your gun down. You're drunk and you don't want to do something you will regret."

"Jérémie! What are you doing?" Ulrich hissed as Jérémie moved closer.

"Follow my lead. She can't see well right now." Jérémie said.

Ulrich and Aélita, both, put their hands up and started to slowly make their way towards Maggie, trusting in what Jérémie said.

"Stop moving!" Maggie ordered. Her gun swinging back and forth, trying to cover all three of their positions.

"Why did the FBI fire you?" Jérémie asked, trying to buy them some time.

"Because I couldn't take you in to them." Maggie said. "I mean, who can arrest their own nephew and his best friends?"

"Maybe we can help you." Ulrich said. "Just put your gun down, please."

"No! I drop my gun, and you will take it. Even when I'm drunk, I can tell what you really want." Maggie said, shaking her head. She closed her eyes to keep herself straight as the alcohol in her system was taking over.

"Trust me, we don't want your gun." Aélita said, trying to take the lead. "The last thing we want is more violence."

Ring Ring

Maggie swung her gun so that it was pointed to Jérémie. "Don't answer that!" she ordered.

"If I don't answer it, they'll be here any minute." Jérémie said, slowly putting his right hand down so he could reach into his pocket.

"Freeze, or I'll shoot!" Maggie said, desperation in her voice. "Trust _me_ , I will."

Jérémie stopped moving only for his phone to stop ringing. He put his hands back up to show he wasn't doing anything.

Ring

Maggie swung over to Ulrich, who now held the ringing phone. "You better not answer that." Maggie said, trying to steady her gun as her hand started to shake.

"Please, Maggie, put your gun down." Aélita said. "We don't want to hurt you and you don't want to hurt us, right?"

Maggie looked at Aélita, swinging her gun to be aimed right at Aélita's feet. "It's my job!" Maggie said, trying to stop the tears going down her cheeks. She closed her eyes and pulled the trigger.

"NO!" Ulrich cried as instinct took over and made him push her out of the way, missing the bullet himself by only inches.

Maggie dropped to her knees, the gun falling to the ground.

Sirens started to be heard as if someone had heard the shot in the normally quiet part of town and called the police.

"You three better get going." Maggie said, looking at the ground. "I'll deal with the police."

"She's right, we don't need any more of the government knowing about us." Jérémie said, helping Ulrich and Aélita up.

Ulrich headed down the man hole with Jérémie, not far behind. Aélita turned to look at Maggie, still sitting on the ground with the gun at her knees on the ground. "Good luck, Maggie." Aélita said.

Maggie looked at her and smiled. The sounds got closer and Aélita headed down the man hole. She fully covered the hole just as cars were heard stopping and a voice said something as a door opened.

"I guess we better tell Odd." Ulrich said.

"Tell Odd what?" Odd's voice asked as wheels were heard heading towards Ulrich, Aélita, and Jérémie.

Odd, Yumi, and April had skateboarded down the sewers after calling and not getting anyone, thinking Xana might have attacked.

"Let's get back to school." Aélita said.

"Ulrich, what happened to your shirt?" April asked, seeing something on the edge of the dark green jacket-like shirt.

"Huh?" Ulrich asked, glancing down at his shirt. He pulled at the edge and saw a small hole. "I guess she could see better than we thought, huh Jérémie."

"You're very lucky." Jérémie said, grabbing his scooter.

-.-.-.-

"You are telling me that Maggie is now with the police?!" April exclaimed as they sat in April's living room.

"Last we saw, yes." Aélita said, nodding her head.

"I can't believe it." Odd said, not sure of what was going on. "Maggie would..." his voice trailed off. He looked at Ulrich and remembered the bullet hole in his jacket.

"I am sorry, Odd." April said, reaching over to the sofa he was sitting on and put her hand on his shoulder.

Odd turned to her and smiled. "Thanks."

"Oh, where you able to contact Suri?" Jérémie asked, trying to change the subject.

"Yes, she said she was going to tell her friends." Yumi said.

"At least your teachers were not too mad at us." April said, remembering that they missed a class period with Maggie.

"The bonuses of hanging out with the exchange student." Ulrich said.

"Ya, well, I've got to go home." Yumi said. "See you all."

"Bye Yumi." Ulrich said as the Japanese girl left.


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

Friday

 _I hope Odd's better today._ April thought as she turned the water off from her shower. She pulled the curtain back and steeped out, taking the towel to dry herself off with. _He was so depressed at dinner and he didn't even come down to tell me good night. I had to go up there and make sure he was ok._

April wrapped herself in the towel and put her glasses on before walking out of the bathroom.

"Surprise!"

April looked at her friend, surprised and annoyed. "Note to self: _lock_ the door before taking the shower."

"Happy Birthday, April!" Odd said.

"Who on earth told you it was my birthday?" April asked, walking over to her bedroom and pulling out her clothes to change into.

"Actually I found it." Jérémie said, trying not to look at her, since she was only in a towel.

"Ya, well, let me get dressed, please?" April asked, pushing Odd in his back to push the three guys that had followed her into her room out.

"I wonder why she didn't tell anyone it was her birthday?" Aélita asked as Odd sat down next to her at the island. In her hand was a lighter as she was ready to light the sixteen candles on the birthday cake they had gotten for her.

"I thought sixteen was the big birthday over in America." Ulrich thought out loud as he and Jérémie sat down, across from Odd and Aélita.

"It is, I just do not really care for big celebrations." April said as she walked out of her bed room, putting a t-shirt over a spaghetti strap shirt. "I do not like people to notice me that much."

"What, a birthday party before school's too much?" Yumi asked, sitting down a present on the island.

"To me, it is." April said, standing next to Odd. "But since you went to all that trouble to get a cake and present, and to find out how old I am...well. We cannot let it go to waist, hum?"

"Great minds think alike!" Odd said, smiling. "Aélita, light the candles so we can eat!"

"Odd, you gluten!" Ulrich said as Aélita went ahead and lit the candles.

"Bon anniversaire à toi! Bon anniversaire à toi! Bon anniversaire à April! Bon anniversaire à toi!"

April blew out the candles, making a wish in the back of her mind.

"What'd you wish for!?" Odd asked, putting his arm around her shoulders.

"Ah! If I told you, it will not come true." April said, smiling at him.

"In that case, give me a piece!" Odd said, looking towards Ulrich and Jérémie who were holding the knife and plates. "I don't care if I'm a gluten. I love food!"

"Odd, you are your name." April said, smiling at the boy. She glanced over at Ulrich as he handed her the paper plate with the slice of cake and remembered something. "That's who you reminded me of!"

"Who?" Ulrich asked, holding the cake out for her.

"That dude from Zombie Power! Shoot, what is his name?" April asked, taking the cake from him. "In the advertisement, he had the gun pointed at his head. It made it look like he did not know how to use the weapon."

"ジョン·エルウッド·シェパード (Jon Eruuddo Shepādo)" Yumi said, remembering the anime.

"Thank you!" April said. "Elwood! Every time I look at Ulrich, I remember that dude."

"If you animate him, I guess." Yumi said.

"You do know, you've lost all of us." Aélita said, looking at the two.

"It's a Japanese Anime." Yumi said.

Ring R-

-.-.-.-

ring!

"I love your Drama teacher." April said as they just finished his class and was waiting for the bell to ring for their next class.

"Ya, it's the only class we all have together." Yumi said.

"Hey Yumi." William said as he walked over. His eyes went to April, noticing she was new. "Ok, I was gone a week and we get new students?"

"Oh, I am not a new student." April said, shaking her head. "I am an exchange student. My name is April Morgan."

"William Dunbar." William said. He looked back at Yumi and asked, "Hey, could we talk later?"

"Uh, sure William." Yumi said, not sounding all that sure.

"Cool, see you in class." William said before walking off towards their class.

"I've got to get going too." Yumi said, picking up her bag.

"Ok, who is that?" April asked as the bell rang and Yumi headed off to follow William to class.

"He's a pain in the neck fighter." Ulrich said.

"So, what? You hate him but he fought Xana?" April guessed as she followed them into Mrs. Hertz science class.

"Ya, he saved us from a bomb Xana had placed in the factory not long before you came here." Jérémie said.

"Ulrich just hates his guts because he likes Yumi." Aélita said.

"That's not it!" Ulrich exclaimed, defending himself.

"Oh get off of it!" Odd said, punching his friend's shoulder. He looked at April as they walked into the class room and said, "Kiwi looked at Yumi one time and went over to kiss her, and Ulrich almost had a hissy fit!"

"I did not." Ulrich said as he sat down next to Odd.

April smiled as she shook her head. She sat down next to Aélita, leaving Jérémie to sit alone beside them.

-.-.-.-

"Hey, what did William want to know?" Ulrich asked as Yumi walked over to them after class.

"Oh, another one of his ideas to get me." Yumi said, shaking her head.

"If he does not go and get Yumi, I am sure this William guy will." April whispered to Odd, Aélita, and Jérémie as they watched their two friends.

"That's sad." Aélita said, looking at April.

"What?" April asked.

"That you were able to notice it in less than a week and they themselves haven't noticed yet." Jérémie said.

"Yes, but I stay out of other people's relationships after what happened to two of my friends." April said. "I ended up breaking them up."

"What did you do?" Odd asked.

"I told Sam that Elizabeth and I were talking about putting her name with another one of our friend's last name, and he took it the wrong way." April explained.

-.-.-.-

"Poliakoff, 40." Mr. Fumet said as he passed back the quizzes they had done on Monday. He gave the boy his paper with a scowl on his face. He looked at the next one and said, "Le Goff, 46. Virginia is spelt with an E at the end in French, not an A."

"Why does he do that?" April asked Odd next to her as he continued to pass out the quizzes.

"Do what?"

"Tell everyone the grades." April said. "Is not it a more personal issue?"

"I think our teachers do it so that everyone will want their grades to be good." Odd said, putting his head on his fist.

"Della Robbia, 75." Mr. Fumet said, putting Odd's paper in front of him. He held up the last two papers and said to the class. "And I've saved the two that tied for best. Stern and Morgan. You both got a 30." He put Ulrich's in front of him before turning to April. "Seriously, for an American and you can't even get more than half of them right? And I even let you get away with spelling them in English!"

April put her head down, looking at her lap as Mr. Fumet lectured her in front of the class.

"Maybe you should tell your teachers back in New Mexico to catch up to the rest of the world, or the once feared United States of America will be no more." Mr. Fumet said, turning around to walk away.

"What you say is true." April said. "American schooling has dropped behind most of the world."

Mr. Fumet turned around to hear the rest.

"I mean, you could name something that you have been learning in the past month, and I would probably have no idea of what you are talking about. And I am about to go into the tenth grade. I think it is year eleven in France."

"You sound to be a step up from what I've heard of other American children." Mr. Fumet praised. "You seem to understand what has happened. Anyway, back to the class work at hand..."

-.-.-.-

"You know, I just realized something about this school's students." April said after swallowing a fries.

"What this time?" Ulrich asked, looking at her across the table as the group ate lunch together.

"All the girls are skinny." April said.

"Ya, France has a lower obesity rating compared to the US." Jérémie said.

"Not that, even though it is an old known fact." April said. "I mean they are not, what is the word, .. with child?"

"Pregnant!" Yumi exclaimed, almost choking on her food. "What on earth!?"

"That's the word." April said.

"There are pregnant girls at your school?!" Ulrich exclaimed.

"Yes." April said. "I knew one girl whose water even broke during class."

"The poor girl." Aélita said.

"Ugh, could you quit talking about this type of stuff?" Ulrich asked, sitting down his fork, looking disgusted.

"Lost your appetite, sorry." April said. "But do not sit at my lunch table."

"With what I know about your school, I wouldn't want to even be there." Ulrich said.

"Hey, at least you do not have to worry about people like Jack at my school." April said.

"What is he like?" Odd asked.

"He is kind of like a stalker, but he is retarded so he does have some slack from that. Though there is a few people who believe he does not shower. It sure smells like it. My friend almost bit off the guy's head though. I mean, with my group of friends, you have to be actual _friends_ with us before you can joke about us. Because we pick on each other all the time, but Jack, he picked on us even without being our friend. Then he actually went and tried to say that we _were_ his friends even after we tried to tell him kindly to leave."

"I am glad there isn't anybody like that here." Yumi said.

"Or is there?" Odd asked, turning his head towards Sissi with a sly smile.

-.-.-.-

"Remember students, at the pool we have special rules." Jim called as they rode the bus to get to the pool house.

"Dad is such a bor." April said, putting her head on her hands as she leaned forward.

"At least we're not the only ones who think that." Odd said from the seat next to her.

"I'm just sorry for Yumi." Ulrich said from across the aisle.

"Oh ya, different grades." April said, remembering that little fact.

"Did everybody remember to grab your swim suits?" Jim asked as they pulled into the parking.

"YES!" a few of the students called out, their voice sounding like they were tired of him asking.

"You have yours?" Jérémie asked, looking behind his seat.

"Ya, Maggie reminded me to grab it before we left America." April said.

"Have you ever had a swim class?" Aélita asked, looking behind her to look at April and Odd.

"No, never." April admitted. "I hate to do it anyway. I always consider myself more of a cat in a human's body. I more of hate water."

"Well this should be fun to watch, since we're diving today." Sissi said, sitting behind April and Odd.

"Oh, I am good at swimming. I finally learned last summer." April said, turning around to face Sissi.

"Last summer?" Sissi exclaimed. "You'll never get past Jim's opening coarse, much less the rest of it."

"You would be surprised." April said, turning back around so she was facing the front of the bus with an evil smile on her face.

-.-.-.-

"Nice trunks." Odd said, realizing what April's swim suit was.

April looked down and smiled. "Thanks. They are way better than dressing like a hoe."

"It's hor." Odd corrected.

"That." April looked over at Sissi as she said that, making a comment to how Sissi's skimpy bikini was compared to April's takini and boy-like trunks.

"April, come here." Jim called as his class started.

"Yes?" April asked as she went up to him.

"Since the last time I saw you, you couldn't even stand to swim, I was wondering how much you could do now." Jim said.

"You want me to do laps?" April asked.

"I just want to see if you can swim in the five foot area." Jim said.

"Alright." April said. She grabbed her goggles and sat her glasses down by Odd. She walked over to the stairs, putting her goggles on, and walked into the water before putting her arms out and pushing off as if she was flying on the surface of the water.

Surprising everyone, she swam out to the five foot area and went over to where Jim's feet where. She grabbed a hold of the side and looked up at him.

"How was that?" April asked, smiling at the sight of her father's surprise.

"Better than I knew you could do." Jim said. "When did you learn how to swim?"

"Last summer." April said modestly.

"Are you sure?" Jim asked. He shook his head and said, "Anyway, you can come out now. You're form was perfect."

"Thank you, Jim." April said, smiling at calling her father "Jim" before doing a back flip off of the wall and heading towards the ladder to get back up.

April walked back over to Odd and smiled.

"Not bad for a beginner. Now watch the pros." Odd said, smiling at her.

"Sure, hot stuff." April said. "You volunteer for first and I will take your second."

"Alright, you're on." Odd said.

The two went over to Jim and Odd asked, "Can we start the diving."

"Sure, that's a first Della Robbia. You never want to be first." Jim said. "Go on up. April, you can go as soon as Odd clears the pool."

"Sure Dad." April said as the two headed over to the ladder to the three meter diving board.

"So are you aiming for big splash, small splash, or best aerodynamic moves?" April asked.

"Smallest splash should be good." Odd said, knowing that was his strong point.

"You are on!"

Odd went up and got onto the diving board. He got into position and did a pencil dive.

Odd's head appeared above the water and April clapped. "Nice, Odd. But watch this."

She waited for Odd to get out of the pool before going over and going up the ladder. She stood at the very far edge before running off and turning herself so that she was facing the water head first.

April closed her eyes and teleported herself just at the right time so that no one would see the light or herself disappearing. No splash was made but she appeared just so that her toe would be above the water.

"Whatever it was, Odd, she beat you." Ulrich said, smiling at the disbelieving Odd.

"Where is she?" Odd asked, realizing she should have been up for air by now.

Ulrich, Odd, Aélita, and Jérémie rushed to the edge only to see April was hanging in the water, not moving.

"April!" Odd cried, jumping into the water after her. He dived down and grabbed her so he could bring her up above the water.

When they surfaced, Jim was standing next to Ulrich, Aélita, and Jérémie, ready for his daughter to be brought up.

Jim pulled April onto the floor and was about to start CPR when she started to cough.

"April, are you ok?" Aélita asked.

April turned her head and spit out some water before looking at her friends and smiling. "Never been better."

"Don't scare us like that!" Odd said.

"Sorry."

"What happened?" Jérémie asked.

April looked at Jim and said, "I do not know."

"Well if you want to, you can sit out the rest of class today." Jim said, helping her to her feet.

"Thanks." April said as her friends took her over to where her stuff was.

Jim walked back over to where the rest of the class was and started talking.

"Actually, I do know what happened." April said, now that Jim was out of ear shot.

"What?" Ulrich asked.

"Well, the way I do my no splash dive, I kind of use teleportation, though I bend the water just so that it does not move against me, but with me." April explained.

"You cheated!" Odd exclaimed.

"Yes, Odd, you really win, though you never said I could not do that." April said. "But when the water got teleported, it ended up landing in my lungs. It has only happened once before and I thought I had figured a way around that."

"Well, at least you're alive." Jérémie said.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

"You know something?" April said as they walked over to Jérémie's dorm room.

"What?" Odd asked.

"Xana has not attached yet."

"Shush! He still has time." Ulrich said.

"Sorry."

"Come on, we're almost done with the cartoon." Odd said, opening the door to Jérémie's room. "I want to finish it today."

"Alright, alright. We know." Yumi said, smiling.

They walked in, only to find Jérémie working on a Lyoko program.

"What's up, Einstein?" Odd asked, seeing his face full of worry.

"Something's happening on Lyoko and I can't get a hold of Aélita." Jérémie said. He turned to his friends and asked, "Was Aélita at the presentation?"

"No, she wasn't." Ulrich said. "We just thought she was with you."

"I can't localize her cell signal." Jérémie said, panic creeping into his voice.

"Could she be on Lyoko?" April asked.

"Yes, but why would she be?" Jérémie asked, checking something.

"There! Is not that her?" April asked, pointing to the yellow triangle appearing in his screen.

"Yes, but something's happening to her program." Jérémie said, reading the window that had popped up. "She's being deleted!"

"We have to go and stop it." Odd said, turning around to head out of the room.

"But there's no activated tower." Jérémie said. "How Xana is doing this, I don't know."

"Could he be using a tower from Xanadu?" Yumi asked.

"Maybe." Jérémie said, typing away as Odd turned back to be behind his friend.

"I wonder if Joro has noticed." April said, thinking out loud.

"I found it. There is an activated tower, the power's just being used to delete Aélita." Jérémie said. "But we're going to need help with where it is."

-.-.-.-

"Hey Jérémie, it's Joro." Joro said as the camera came online. "Everyone that's going has the best powers for where this tower is on Lyoko."

"Ya, but we don't have much time." Jérémie said, using the supercomputer to translate their speech. "Aélita's getting deleted by Xana right now and we need your help to get to the activated tower in Lyoko's mountain sector."

"Got it." Joro said. He moved the chair over to another screen and started to type in the commands.

"Scanner Antea, Scanner Cat, Scanner Mack. Transfer. Virtualization!" Joro called, typing in the information.

His three friends appeared on the forest sector of Xanadu and waited for his signal. Cat's hair crept upward as if it had changed into a grape vine of sorts.

"Here's your transport." Joro said, typing to get the access panel. "L-Y-O-K-O!"

The black transporter appeared, taking the three to Lyoko.

-.-.-.-

Ulrich stopped sideways on his Overbike as he saw three figures being virtualized in the mountain sky. Beside him was Odd and Yumi with April on her overwing.

"Uf!" Cat cried, landing hard on her feet. She stood up and looked around. "Whoa."

"I know, different, huh?" April said, smiling at her friends from the US.

"A little." Mack said, smiling at the girl.

"Come on, we don't have much time." Jérémie said, typing in some codes. "Aélita's just west of your position."

"Got it, Einstein!" Odd said.

"I'll go on ahead and see what needs to be done." April said, closing her eyes and teleporting out of sight.

"Cat, get on with me." Yumi ordered as she noticed Mack morphing his body to have skate-like feet and Antea jumping onto the back of Ulrich's Overbike.

Cat jumped onto the Overwing and grabbed Yumi's waist. "Let's go save Aleta!"

"It's Aélita." Yumi corrected.

"Sorry." Cat said as she held on tighter to Yumi as they speed through the mountain sector of Lyoko.

"How you like the look?" Ulrich asked as they headed towards the tower.

"It looks so much like a cartoon it's not funny." Mack said.

"There! I thing I see Aélita!" Yumi called out, straining to see something ahead of them.

"The pink haired girl?" Mack asked.

"Yap." Odd said.

"She's attached to a tower!" Antea said, surprised.

As they got closer they saw that red lights were holding her to the tower, her digital form deterriating.

"Aélita!" Ulrich cried, seeing what Xana was doing to her.

April had climbed up to her and was working at putting her bo in-between Aélita and the lights, only to find that it was dissolving her bo.

April looked down and saw that they had arrived. And behind them, figures started to be virtualized.

"Look out!" Jérémie said. "Xana's sending you some Krabes."

"Crabs?" Cat asked, turning around only to see the red monster land on its four legs behind them.

"Ya, advanced creators of Xana." April said, dropping down. "Mack, Cat, Antea, I need your help getting Aélita out. Odd, Ulrich, Yumi, hold back the Krabe."

"Will do!" Ulrich said as he jumped off his Overbike as the Krabe shot at him.

The laser hit the Overbike, sending it skidding off the edge of the platform.

"Cat, send a vine up towards Aélita with Mack at the top." April ordered, used to her friend's powers. "Mack, see if you can copy Xana's lights and deflect them away from Aélita to re-generate her. Antea, be ready to catch her when she falls off of the tower."

"And what about you?" Antea asked, still not used to April ordering.

"Xana surely will send more monsters. I'll help the Lyoko Warriors with keeping them away from you." April said as Cat fell down to her hands and knees, her hair going down to the ground and coming back up under Mack, picking him up. He went up towards Aélita and stopped right next to her, putting one hand in the lights. The other hand was trying to recreate the lights to help Aélita.

"Laser arrow!" Odd cried, shooting down into the eye of Xana on the Krabe's back, killing it.

"So where are the rest of Xana's monsters?" Yumi asked, looking around as she glided above on her overwing.

"Ya, this is way too easy." Ulrich said, sheathing his sword.

"Well, it's just about to get harder." Jérémie said as on his screen more red triangles where vitalizing. "Xana's sending you three mega-tanks and a tarantula."

"I'll take the spider, you three can take the balls." April said, her bo that was still trying to regenerate itself already in her hands.

"You know, what you just said, could be taken the wrong way." Antea said, looking away from Aélita and Mack.

"Shut up." April sang, knowing what the girl meant.

"Don't want to know." Jérémie said, looking at the screen with how much longer Aélita had. "Aélita's only got about two more minutes left. Hurry!"

"I'm almost done, Jérémie." Mack said as behind him and down on the ground, April had taken combat with the Tarantula and Odd, Yumi, and Ulrich each had a Mega-tank.

"Laser arrow!" Odd cried as he saw a chance with the mega-tank he had picked as it opened.

The laser made it inside the monster as it was closing and exploded quicker than anyone expected.

"Odd!" April cried as she used her bo to trip the tarantula, but couldn't get around to its eye of Xana.

Odd pointed his fist in the direction and shot at it, the arrow shooting it in the right spot.

"Odd, when did you get so good?" Ulrich asked as he avoided a wall of laser light from the mega-tank he was fighting.

"I guess I'm just good." Odd said as he saw Ulrich close in on the monster.

"One more minute." Jérémie said, giving Mack how long he had until Aélita was no more.

"Just a few more seconds." Mack said, working as fast as he could.

"Triplication!" Ulrich cried, creating a triangle around the monster.

The mega-tank swiveled around, not sure which was the real one. It shot at one of them, cutting the triangle.

The Ulrich on the mega-tank's left lunged forward, only to get shot.

The real Ulrich had traveled around and as he saw his other self get shot at, he stabbed the mega-tank in the eye of Xana, killing it.

"Mack!" Jérémie said, watching the clock tick down to the last seconds."

"There! That should do it!" Mack said as he took his arm away and Aélita fell downward.

"I got her." Antea said, concentrating on the girl so that she would land on the ground as a feather would.

Aélita laid on the ground as the remanding mega-tank was destroyed. Everyone gathered around her, worried if she had survived or not.

Aélita opened her eyes and saw everyone around her. "What's going on? What is everybody doing?" Aélita asked, getting up.

"It's a long story." Antea said as she helped her up. "Just deactivate the tower."

"Ok." Aélita said, not sure what had happened. She turned around and walked into the tower, deactivating it.

-.-.-.-

Aélita yawned as the six friends walked across the bridge, going away from the factory.

"Looks like someone needs to hit the hay early." April said, seeing Aélita's tired look.

"It might be a good idea." Jérémie said, worried for her.

"Alright." Aélita said, realizing how tired she was.

"I've got to get going home." Yumi said as she noticed how low the sun was in the sky, turning some of the sky pink.

"See you Yumi." Ulrich said as she continued to walk.

Odd moved the man hole cover and smiled at the look on Ulrich's face.


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21

Saturday

"I can't believe this is my last full day here." April said as she ate her breakfast with her new group of friends.

"We still on for dinner?" Odd asked, sounding as if he couldn't wait.

"Of course." April said.

"Anything with food." Jérémie said, smiling.

"How are you going to get home now, with Maggie with the cops?" Aélita asked.

"I have still got the two tickets." April said. "So I will still go by plane. It also gives people proof that I do not just pop to where I want to go."

"What are you going to do with the second ticket?" Ulrich asked.

"I do not know. One of you could probably keep me company till we get there. Than I could teleport you back faster than it took to get there." April said.

"I'll go. I won't be missing any classes." Odd said.

"Just food." Jérémie said.

"Trust me, I have got plenty of ways of getting food without worrying about airplane service." April said. "So you do not mind?"

"No." Odd said, smiling. "And I might also get to see your Michael."

"Who?" Aélita asked, about to take a bite out of her banana only to look at April with surprise.

"Ya, who's this Michelle?" Ulrich asked, smiling at her.

"It is Michael, male." April tried to correct. She sighed before continuing. "He's my boyfriend."

"How long have you two been together?" Aélita asked, smiling.

"Three years." April said, proudly.

"Three years!" Jérémie exclaimed, almost choking on his breakfast.

"Does he know about Xanadu?" Ulrich asked.

"No, he does not. And I do not wish for him to." April said, shaking her head. "I fear what he might think of me after he finds out that I have abilities."

"If he truly loves you, than that won't do any damage." Ulrich said.

"And, if he does dump you, you've always got me!" Odd said, leaning over onto April's shoulder.

"Oh, get off!" April said, pushing Odd off, smiling. "Always on the rebound, huh?"

"That's Odd for you." Aélita said.

"Oh, have you put the video together?" Jérémie asked.

"Ya, about that." Odd said, smiling. "I've got it all together, except for one thing."

"Let me guess, you cannot color." April said, smiling.

"Ha ha, very funny." Odd said, smiling back. "No, lip-sync. I can't get the program to work right, so I'm going to have to do it old styled."

"Good Luck. It is hard." April said. "I have tried."

"Well, I'm working on it." Odd said, "Hopefully it will be done with enough time you can see it here."

"Let's hope." April said. She swallowed her food and looked at Ulrich. "Hey, this may sound weird, but could you stand up?"

"Uh, why?" Ulrich asked, his food about to go into his mouth.

"I just thought of something." April said, standing up herself. "Come on, stand up."

"Ok." Ulrich said, not sure as he stood up. He looked up at her, wondering what she was trying to figure out.

"Come on, stand straight." April said, realizing he was slouching a little.

Ulrich straightened, still not sure what she was after.

"I _am_ taller than you." April said, smiling.

"Ya, I thought you realized that by now." Ulrich said, nodding his head before sitting back down to finish his food.

" _I_ am normally the short one in my group." April said. "Except for the ninth graders, but I stay with mostly guys."

"But Americans are normally tall." Jérémie said. "Males get to be a little under two meters."

"Two meters?" April asked, not used to metric.

"About six feet." Odd explained.

"Thanks. Whereas most of the men here are about five eight." April said, guessing their height.

"Mostly." Ulrich said. "Yumi's the tall one for around here."

"I thought Japanese where actually short." April said, realizing Yumi was around her own height.

"It depends on what you eat." Aélita said. "Most Asians eat rice and sea food, whereas Yumi has had more of the red meats and everything else we have."

"Makes sense." April said, nodding her head. "Rice and sea food are not high in the right stuff for growth."

-.-.-.-

"Man, I like your next class." April said, smiling as they waited for the bell to ring to tell them to go to their next class.

"Why?" Aélita asked. "Oh, right. English."

"How long have you all been studding it?" April asked.

"Well, with me..." Odd started, smiling. "I've learned it my whole life."

"Show off." Ulrich said. "Just because your grandmother lives in New Zealand."

"As far as I know, I've always known English." Aélita admitted. "But the earliest I really remember was when I was living back in 1993."

"According to my mom, I could spell in English when I was little, but I guess it was an unpracticed art that died away with me." Jérémie said.

"And with English and German being closely related, I can understand a bit of it." Ulrich said. "But I guess I started studying it in year 3."

"In Japan, it's kind of like with what you had said earlier about America and Spanish. You have to know it to get around." Yumi said as the bell called them. "Well, wish me luck. I've got to go and do a speech."

"Bon chance!" April said, as the two groups split.

-.-.-.-

"I wonder what April has planned." Aélita thought out loud as the five friends walked down the hall.

"With her, who knows." Jérémie said.

Odd opened the door for them all to hear music and April singing along.

"En direct life, on surfe sur les vibes. D'un mouveau monde, en une seconde L'univers. A portée de nos mains, L'UNIVERS! Ensemble nous appartiens de mains."

"Hey, that's the Subdigitals." Ulrich realized as they headed into the living room.

Set up on the coffee table was her laptop with speakers. April turned around, embarrassed about being surprised. "It is Planet Net in English." April replied, turning back to what she was working on the stove.

"Planet Net?" Ulrich asked. "What does it say?"

April listened for a second before saying, "In a direct life, they surf on the vibes. Of a new worked, in a second universe. A door of our hands, UNIVERS. Together we appear tomorrow."

"Nice." Aélita said, sitting down on the sofa.

"So what are we having?" Odd asked as he leaned over the island to look at some of the stuff there.

"Total American." April said, pulling out a bag and showed her friends that she had gone back to America just a second ago.

"Fast food?" Aélita asked.

"That is as American as it gets." April said, smiling. "I only went there for the popcorn chicken. I am making homemade French fries and Mac and Cheese."

"Mac and Cheese: The staple of America." Ulrich said, imitating someone from TV.

"I have proved that one can live off of it." April admitted as she steered the noodles in the pot.

"Out of the box Mac and Cheese." Yumi said, reading the box. "In English."

"You can't get more American." April pointed out. "Oh, and I hope nobody has a problem with coke."

"Why would we?" Odd asked. "We drink it every day."

"Ya, but yours has sugar. Real sugar. American Coke as other stuff." April said. "My opinion, yours tastes a lot better."

"Might as well give it a taste." Jérémie said, trying to read the ingredients.

"Oh, and do you all like Tom and Jerry?" April asked, turning around to face her friends over the counter as the song changed from Subdigitals to a song in German that got Ulrich nodding his head to the beat.

"Ya, why?" Odd asked. "It's not like they really had to translate them for any other country."

"No, but for The Movie, they would've." April said. "Have you seen it? It is from 1992."

Aélita shook her head, looking at her friends.

"No, I don't think any of us have seen one from then." Yumi said, shaking her head.

"You want to watch it?" April asked.

"Sure." Ulrich said. "What is this song, it's good."

"Major Tom. There is a Japanese version out there, but one of my school friends, Kaitlyn, has not found it yet."

"Really random here, but what's Kailyn's last name?" Odd asked.

"Oh, Kaitlyn is not her real name, just her nick named." April explained. "But her last name is Della Robbia. Do not tell me she is your relations!?"

"Yap." Odd said, nodding with the rest of his friends.

"Do you all know her?" April asked, seeing their reactions.

"She came here earlier last year." Jérémie said, still remembering her death hug.

"Oh, so you all are those people she was telling us about!" April exclaimed when it hit her.

"Someone start singing "It's a small world after all." Ulrich said, singing the title.

"I'm sorry for you, really." Yumi said.

"Why?"

"You have to go to school with her." Yumi explained.

"It is not that bad. She is over the top a little, err, well, a lot, but I have gotten used to her." April said, turning around to stir the noodles again, only to grab her chest as a pain shot through-out her body, freezing her.

"April, are you ok?" Odd asked, the only one close enough to notice.

April acted as if she didn't hear Odd. She started to double over, causing Odd to race around the island to her side to hold her up. "Ulrich, get over here! April's having some type of problem." Odd ordered, holding April up.

Their friends all rushed over, Ulrich taking the spoon out of April's hand and stirring the noodles so the water wouldn't over flow.

Odd and Yumi helped April over to the sofa and sat her down on it.

April was able to move her hand way from her chest and looked at them, surprised.

"Are you ok?" Jérémie asked as he and Aélita stood not too far away from Odd and Yumi.

"Ya." April said. "Man, have not had that happen in a while."

"What was it?" Aélita asked. "Was it a side-effect from Xanadu?"

"No, I have had those pains for years. I just thought I had fixed it all." April said. She noticed Ulrich was over at the food, making sure that none of it messed up. "Thank you Ulrich." April called into the kitchen getting the boy to nod his head to say he had heard.

"Do you need to lie down for a while?" Yumi asked.

"No, I am fine." April said, standing up. "It is letting up."

"Are you sure?" Odd asked, worry in his eyes.

"Do not worry Odd." April said, smiling at the boy. "I am used to it."

"You seem to have to be used to too many things." Odd said, knowing about what her mother does now that he knows who his cousin was talking about one time.

April walked over to Ulrich just as a song started to play, saying "You and me, baby, we can do it like they do on the discovery channel"

"Oh no! Somebody hit next." April said, turning around, fast.

"Why, it sounds like a good song." Jérémie said.

"Uh, trust me, it is not really." April said.

"Now you've got me curious." Ulrich said, walking over to his friends from the stove. "I want to hear it."

"I am not translating it for you." April said, crossing her arms over her chest.

"That's ok." Odd said, going over to the computer and opening to a window of files. "We can just read the lyrics."

"Fine, whatever." April said, giving up as the buzzer went off for the fries.

As April put on the oven mitts and opened the stove, she heard Odd exclaimed, "April, why do you have a song about sex?!"

April straightened up and sat down the pan of fires as she said, "It has a cool beat."

"Ya, well, hit next." Yumi said, after getting down to something about balls and south seas.

"Oh I know this song." Aélita said as the next song started to play.

"Now every time I hear it, I think of you." April said, smiling as she looked at the group from over the island.

"Why?" Jérémie asked.

"Well, the words go saying that the girl is finally human after being a fantasy or not real. And is not that how it happened with you?" April asked. "Was not it that you were the virtual being who, like a dream, became real?"

"Ya, you've got that all right." Aélita said, blushing a little.

April took the pot off the stove that held the noodles and went over to the sink to poor out the liquid as they all listened to the song as she sang it.

April mixed together the ingredients, not realizing that everyone had gotten closer to her to hear her sing instead of the original singer.

April turned around to grab the cheese and was startled. "Whoa! What?"

"You're a good singer." Ulrich said.

April shook her head. "I do not believe so." April said, turning back towards the pot to mix in her Mac and cheese together.

"You have a very low self-esteem, don't you?" Yumi asked.

"I guess I do." April said, nodding her head. "But with my family, how could I not?"

"I'm guessing Jim's never been one for giving high self-esteem?" Aélita asked.

"No, he has not." April said.

"Ya, he told her that her smile was ugly!" Yumi said, remembering what April said earlier that week.

"I, for one, can't believe it." Odd said, shaking his head.

April blushed, not sure what to say to all the praises her new friends were giving her as she mixed in a cheese powder, milk, and butter without any real measuring.

The song changed again, this time to a language everyone was having a problem figuring out.

"What language is this?" Jérémie asked, finally giving up.

"Swedish." April said, mixing in the noodles. "He is singing about how this robot turned out to be a real girl but in his heart, she will always be a robot."

"Kind of harsh, isn't it?" Ulrich asked.

April shrugged. "According to something I read, it really happened."

"Ouch." Odd said, sorry for the girl he guessed name was Anna.

"Who is hungry?" April asked, holding the pot up to show that the Mac and cheese had finally finished.

Odd opened his mouth, only for April to smile and say, "Other than you, Odd."

They all laughed as April started to fill up plates of chicken, Mac and cheese, and French fries. They sat around the coffee table, American cokes in front of everyone but April and the computer so that everyone could see the movie as April slid in the old VHS into the tape player attached by USB cord.

-.-.-.-

"They talked." Aélita stated, as the ending credits scrolled over the screen.

"That is why I said they would have had to translate it for you." April said, rewinding the tape.

"I didn't know they could actually talk." Odd said.

"Ya, every episode you ever get to see has only screams because Tom got hurt." Ulrich said.

"Or Jerry writing on the ground." Jérémie said.

"But you liked it, no?" April asked.

"Oh, yes!" Yumi said, smiling and nodding her head. "And the food was terrific."

"Thanks." April said, collecting the plates.

"Oh, I've got it." Odd said, taking her pile as well as Jérémie's, Aélita's, and his own.

"Thanks." April said again. "Who wants dessert?"  
"I know Odd does." Ulrich said, smiling.

"Ugh, I don't think I could eat any more." Jérémie said, patting his stomach.

"I'll take some." Yumi said, standing up.

April walked into the kitchen with Aélita, Yumi, and Ulrich behind her. They waited in front of the island as April uncovered a pan. Odd handed her five plates and forks.

"Thanks." April said.

"What is it?" Aélita asked, seeing something brown and green.

"Looks like something out of Green Eggs and Ham." Ulrich said.

"It is cinnamon Apples with brown sugar." April said as she dished out the apples slices onto the plates. "My mother's family really southern, so I think this counts as a southern delicacy."

She sat the five plates down on the island and pulled out a container of brown sugar to sprinkled on top of the slices.

The five took their plates and went back to sit down as music started to play, thanks to Jérémie, from April's computer.

"It does look weird." Jérémie said, looking at everyone's plates.

"But it is good." April said.

Odd took a bite out of his and smiled. "It is! Come on Jérémie, at least take a bite out of mine. You've got to try this."

Jérémie took a slice from Odd as he handed it to the blond haired boy and looked at it, wondering what happened to the apple. He put the slice in his mouth and smiled at the sweet taste.

"Good, is it not?" April asked.

"Yes, it it." Jérémie said, sounding surprised. "You mind if I get a plate?"

"Sure, go ahead." April said, smiling. Her smile faded as she remembered what was going to happen the next day. "I am going to hate going home."

"Other than your mother?" Odd asked as he walked into the kitchen.

"Yes, other than her." April said. "The good food, the great friends, the techno radio station, and the good coke!"

"I did notice the difference between the two." Aélita said.

"I, personally, like yours better." April said. "Hey, this may sound really random, but what type of elementary school did you all go to when you were little?"

"Why you ask?" Ulrich asked.

"Uh, sorry. I was just curious." April said, worried she had offended him. "Last year, my French teacher had a DVD called Etre et Avoir. It was about a central part of France and an elementary school that was old styled where everyone had one teacher."

"That's how my classes were when I was little." Jérémie said, smiling as he remembered his old school.

"I never had a normal education." Ulrich said. "Since in Germany you can't home school anyone, I had a privet teacher before coming to France and went into Sissi's class. But that school was like this one, separate classes. They were getting everyone ready for middle school."

"New Zealand's elementary schools are supposed to be like American. One teacher for each grade." Odd said, sitting back down.

"So's Japanese." Yumi said.

"And I can't tell you, 'cause I don't remember." Aélita said, bluntly.

"I know how that is. To not remember." April said. "I still have not remembered everything from before the accident and probably never will."

"Here's a question for you." Odd said as he watched April get the computer to play music again. "How many years have you been learning French?"

"In a school class, uh, two years." April admitted as she sat back. "But I was trying to self teach myself beforehand. And, actually, my mom said that French was my first language. Her friend spoke French all the time and I picked it up quicker than I did English."

"That's actually kind of funny." Yumi said, smirking.

Ring

April looked at her cell, sitting next to her computer and growled at the number as she picked it up.

"Your mother." Odd asked.

"Oui, cette garce!" April said, growling her English.

"Whoa, language!" Odd said, surprised at what April had just said.

"Excuse me, so I can go and kill myself as my mother yells at me." April said, sarcastically as she stood up and walked into Maggie's room, shutting the door behind her.

"I hope she doesn't actually kill herself." Aélita said, worried.

"Don't worry." Odd said, leaning back on the sofa next to Ulrich and Jérémie. "She told me she can't die."

"How does she know?" Ulrich asked.

"She's tried." Odd said with a sigh. "According to her, she's tried lethal medications, strangulation, fire, and even made sure that they would crash in the car. All never really hurt her as much as her family has."

"How has she survived?" Jérémie asked, surprised.

"She said she believed it was God saying she had to do something before she died. Right now she believes it's because of her boyfriend, Michael. She feels that she was able to save him from killing himself."

"Sounds like the two are holding each other up." Ulrich said.

"In a way, yes." Odd said, nodding his head. "I hope she'll be better once she can get out of her mother's house."

It got quiet as a song played on, saying stuff about how suicide was painless.

"Can you hit next?" Aélita asked, hopping the next song would be better and more up-beat.

Ulrich reached over and moved the mouse, tapping it and getting a new song to play.

The words were Japanese, getting Yumi to smile as she knew what they were saying.

The song almost ended before April walked out, her hand going white where her phone was as if she had been gripping it too hard.

"You ok?" Odd asked as April walked over and plopped down in the recliner.

"Can I kill her?" April asked, looking serious.

"No! No more talk about death! Please!" Aélita exclaimed, surprising everyone.

Everyone looked at her surprised.

"Is everything ok, Aélita?" Jérémie asked, worried about her.

"I'm sorry." Aélita said, standing up. "I need some air."

"Um, ok." April said, wondering if she said something to offend her.

Aélita walked out, leaving her friends confused.

"Jérémie, why not you go and see what is wrong." April said. "She will talk to you, no?"

"I guess." Jérémie said, standing up. He walked out of the apartment and found Aélita had just slumped down to the floor outside her door.

"Aélita, what's wrong?" Jérémie asked, sitting down next to her, his back to the wall.

"I'm just tired of all this talk about death." Aélita said.

"But we weren't talking about death all that much." Jérémie said.

"No, but..."Aélita took a breath before continuing. "but I had a flash back. It was of my mother. It was as if she knew something bad was going to happen to her and she didn't want it to happen, or something. But I remember Franz getting mad at her and I remember seeing blood. I know that it all happened when I was about five because we were still in the mountain house and she was with us." Aélita hugged her knees closer, biting her bottom lip.

"It's ok now, Aélita." Jérémie said, putting his arm around her shoulders. "We'll find your mom and get your father out of Lyoko. I'm sure we will."

Aélita looked up at him. "Thank you."

"What are friends for?" Jérémie asked as the door to the apartment opened, startling the two.

"Come on, please. Tell me." Ulrich pleaded as he walked out of the room first.

"Don't look at me." Odd said, shaking his head as he walked behind Ulrich with Yumi and April right behind him.

Ulrich turned to Aélita and Jérémie as they stood up and asked, "Do _you_ know what a Disco Stick is?"

"A what?" Jérémie asked, not having a clue.

"No." Aélita said, shaking her head. "What is it?"

April shut the door behind her and said, "Fine, I will tell them."

April turned so that she was looking at her friends and said, "Only Jérémie, Ulrich, and Odd have it. Aélita, Yumi, and I are supposed to "ride" it, according to the song."

"Ohh." Jérémie said, his voice dropping as if he really didn't want to know.

"Ok, you were right." Ulrich said, putting his hands in his pockets. "Curiosity killed the cat."

"Where are you all going?" Aélita asked, changing the subject.

"We were going to show April all of the sights at night." Odd said, happy to get away from the Disco Stick thing. "You two want to come?"

"Sure." Jérémie said, nodding his head. "Some fresh air should do us some good."


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22

April looked around and found herself back in her house in New Mexico. A buzzer was going off, making her think that the drier was done.

Then she realized it was going on too long for it to have been the drier.

April's mind slowly realized where she was and opened her eyes so she could see Odd laying in the bed with her.

"Odd, turn it off. Dad will hear you." April said, thinking Odd had something that made a loud buzzing sound. Then it hit her, he had nothing but his cloths and cell and she didn't think his cell could make that sound that loud and long.

A knock came from her door, getting her up. April rolled herself over Odd and she walked out of her room towards the door, still not sure why or even what the buzzing was.

"Come on!" Ulrich's voice said, hurried.

"Huh?" April asked, still out of it as she rubbed her eyes, trying to get the sleep out.

"It's a fire alarm. Get Yumi! I'll get Odd!" Ulrich ordered, rushing in.

"A fire alarm!" April asked, fully away now. She ran into Maggie's old room and opened the door, not bothering with knocking. "Get up! Fire alarm!" April ordered, adrenalin kicking in, waking her up.

"What?" Yumi asked, sitting up in her bed.

"Come on!" April said, grabbing the girl's wrist so that she could pull her out.

"I have to get my flip flops!" Yumi said, waking up.

"I am not even grabbing my glasses!" April said as she pulled on Yumi's arm. "Aller!"

Yumi ran next to April out of the room and almost ran into Ulrich and Odd, both still in their boxers.

The four ran out of the apartment, when Yumi remembered about Aélita and Jérémie. "Did you wake the Einsteins?" Yumi asked.

"No." Ulrich said, pushing open the door in front of himself. "The smoke was coming from up there. I couldn't do anything."

"What about Kiwi?" Odd asked, smelling the smoke in the stair well.

"He was what woke me up before the alarm." Ulrich said, pushing open the big doors to the outside, finding most of the school's students and teachers along with the fire department that was just arriving.

All were standing in their night cloths. Some were in pjs, others, like Yumi, Ulrich, and Odd, stood in their underwear.

"There they are!" April said, pointing off towards the park. Jérémie was sitting on the ground with Aélita sitting next to him. In her arms was a cream bundle of fur.

"Kiwi!" Odd cried, running towards the three faster than he had run out of the smoking dormitories.

The four made it over to Jérémie and Aélita, Odd getting his dog.

"You have any idea what happened?" Ulrich asked as Jérémie and Aélita stood up.

"No." Aélita said, shaking her head. "Sissi banged on our doors before the fire alarm started. That's all we really know."

"Maybe one of her electrics blew." Yumi said, hugging herself as a cold wind blew from the north.

"Uh, here Yumi." Jérémie said, unbuttoning his pajama shirt to give to her.

She took it from him and wrapped it around her shoulders. "Thanks Jérémie." she said, smiling at her friend.

"I wish I could see better." April said, squinting at something towards the dorms.

"What are you trying to read?" Odd asked, Kiwi tight in his arms.

"Oh, I was hoping to read the lips of the firemen to see what they were saying." April said, looking back at her friends. "My hearing is going out, so I thought it would be a good thing to learn."

"It also makes spying easier." Aélita said, smiling.

"Jérémie, did you actually go to sleep before the alarm?" Ulrich asked, realizing the boy actually had his glasses on, whereas most of the people he could see that normally wore glasses, weren't wearing them right then.

"I was typing when the alarm went off." Jérémie admitted.

"And I don't want to know what you two were doing before the alarm went off." Ulrich said, looking at April and Odd. "Cause when we left, Odd was on the sofa."

"When I went to bed, Odd was on the sofa." Yumi said, crossing her arms over her chest.

"We were asleep when the alarm went off." April said. "Actually, when it started I thought I was back home and the drier was going off."

"Nice." Ulrich said. "I was wondering why you looked like you were still asleep when you opened the door.

"That was nothing." Yumi said. "Right before April woke me up, my dream was a flash back to an earthquake in Japan. It flowed so smoothly, I didn't even think about the alarm going off in the real world."

"Alright everyone!" Jim's voice came loud. "Everything's clear! Go back to bed! Breakfast will be a half an hour later than normal!"

"Well, at least they're giving us an extra half an hour to sleep." Odd said, shoving his dog up his shirt as the group started to move back towards the dorm.

"Do you want me to take Kiwi?" Ulrich asked, knowing where Odd wanted to go.

"No, I've got him. I've got to get back up there anyway." Odd said. He turned to April and asked, "You mind, bringing my clothes back up to my room tomorrow?"

"Sure." April shrugged.

"Night." Aélita said as Yumi and April headed back to the apartment.

"Night." Yumi and April said, almost at the same time.

April opened the door for Yumi as Yumi asked, "What were you and Odd doing in your bed?"

"It is actually not what you think." April said, looking kind off embarrassed to say as she shut the door behind her.

"Well..." Yumi prompted.

"You know how some dreams seem to haunt you?" April asked.

Yumi nodded.

"Well, I keep having one of all of my friends dying, and earlier, it included all of you guys." April said, stopping at her doorway. She looked back at Yumi and continued. "I guess I made some sort of noise and Odd came in and woke me up. He was going to stay in there in till I fell asleep, but I guess he fell asleep before he realized what was happening."

"At least you two didn't do anything, did you?" Yumi asked, walking in the room.

"Of course not!" April exclaimed, following the girl, shutting the door behind her. "I have a boyfriend back home, thank you very much."

"Sorry." Yumi said, smiling.

"It is ok." April said, smiling back.


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter 23

Sunday

"Your last day in France." Ulrich said as April sat down with Yumi at their breakfast table.

"I am going to miss it all." April said, looking at her croissant in her hand. "The good food especially."

"Did you get to do everything you wanted to?" Jérémie asked.

"No, there is still two things I would like to do." April said, sitting down her food.

"What's that?" Aélita asked.

"The amusement park in Paris-"

"You mean Futuroscope?" Odd asked.

"Ya, that place and I wanted real chicken Cordon Bleu."

"The chicken Cordon Bleu we can do." Ulrich said, smiling. "The amusement parks a bit too much."

"Uh, I was not expecting you to even go to that much trouble." April said, surprised.

"Sure. We've got today off and you don't have to leave in till, what, 15 heure?" Odd asked.

"Yes, that is it." April nodded her head.

"Then it's settled. We'll all go out for an early dinner, just for you." Yumi said, smiling.

"Thanks." April said, looking down at her lap.

"You don't have to thank us." Odd said, smiling at her.

April looked up at him and smiled back.

"Anyway, it's the least we can do for what you treated us to yesterday." Ulrich said.

"Ya, there's this little diner just down the road." Yumi said, smiling. "From what I've been told, they've got the best cordon bleu around."

"So it's settled?" Odd asked, sounding as if he was making it final. "We'll go there around one for an early diner."

"Or late lunch." April said, smiling.

"Or right, you last day's today." Sissi said, walking up behind the American.

April turned around and smiled, "What, you just can't wait to get rid of me, can you?"

"Uh-"Sissi stopped herself before saying anything and turned to walk away.

"Nice way of getting her to shut up." Odd said, smiling.

"Hey, what works." April said, smiling back.

"What was the fire alarm for anyway?" Aélita asked, realizing no one had explained it yet.

"I heard it was Sissi's hair drier." Ulrich said. "She had left it on after she went to sleep and it started to burn the cloth underneath it. No fire, thank God."

"Excuse us, we were wondering if you could answer a few questions for the Kadic News?" Millie asked, her mike in hand and ready for April. Tamiya was standing behind her with the camera.

April turned to the two and smile. "Sure. Odd told me that the news crew wanted to talk to me."

"Whoa, your French is better than I expected." Tamiya exclaimed.

"I thank the cartoons and B.D.s." April said. "So what do you want to know?"

"What were you expecting when you came to France?" Millie asked, putting the mike in front of April's face.

"When I came to France, I was expecting perverts, gays, snoots, and everybody eating pastries and snails." April said.

"I'm glad not everyone's like that." Tamiya said, getting a look from Millie as if to say to shut up.

Millie shook her head and looked back at April. "What's your favorite thing about France?"

"So far, the coca-cola, techno music on all the stations, and good friends." April said, putting her arm around Odd's shoulders.

"What are you going to miss when you go back home?" Millie asked.

"Mostly the same list." April said. "I love it over here."

"What have you missed from home?" Millie asked.

April sighed before looking at them, "My boyfriend and my friend-family."

"You're "friend-family?" Millie asked.

"My friends are close enough that we just call each other brother and sister. I have even got a mother in all that group. And my boyfriend is close enough that everyone is already calling him my husband." April answered. "But I now have an extended French family."

April glanced back at her table and the five there realized she was talking about them.

April looked back at Millie, Tamiya, and the Camera and smiled. "I can only pray that we will see each other in the future."

"Wow." Tamiya said, surprised as she closed the camera to save power.

"What? Too deep?" April asked, worried.

"No, I just never thought about it that way." Millie said. "Thanks."

"Sure." April said, smiling as she nodded once to the two before turning around towards her friends. "I just realized something."

"What?" Ulrich asked after swallowing a bite.

"This is the first Sunday I have missed going to church because I was out of town." April said.

"You want to go to my church?" Yumi offered. "I was going to skip today because I wanted to spend more of your last day here with you. It's catholic, though."

"There is not many christen churches around here, is there?" April noticed. "But that would be great, what time does it start?"

"8:30." Yumi said.

"Don't you go to the one that's down the road from where you live?" Ulrich asked.

"Ya, we can walk." Yumi said.

"Can I come with you two?" Jérémie asked, looking up from his food.

"I didn't know you were religious." Aélita said.

"Ya, I haven't gone in a while, but I do miss it." Jérémie said.

"But sure." April said, nodding her head.

"Why no, I'll tag along too." Ulrich said. He looked at Odd and Aélita with a face asking them if they wanted to come.

"I'll come too." Odd said, swallowing.

"Aélita?" Jérémie asked, looking at the pink haired girl sitting next to him.

"I don't really know anything about God." Aélita admitted. "I mean, for the past year and a half I thought my creator was Franz. Then, well, you all know the story."

"Well, you can still come." April said. "I do not know about catholic, but christens are supposed to spread the word. That means no one should get turned away."

"Alright." Aélita said, smiling.

"Well, I guess we better change before we get going." Ulrich said, standing up. "Yumi's church is old fashioned and likes the people that enter the building to be dressed right."

"Can you all meet me at my place?" Yumi asked as everyone started to stand up.

"Sure. We'd have to pass the place anyway." Odd said, smiling at Yumi.

"See you." Yumi said, hurrying out before her friends so she could change clothes.

"Uh, April." Aélita said, getting the other girl to stay behind the three guys.

"What is it?" April asked.

"What should I wear?" Aélita asked, sounding as if she was feeling awkward about asking the question.

"Do you have a dress that you don't normally wear?" April asked.

"One, but it's my DJ outfit." Aélita admitted.

"You want me to come up to your room? I do not really know what you have." April said.

"Ok, thanks." Aélita said, smiling at her new friend.

"You two ok?" Odd asked, turning around with the rest of the guys as they waited at the door.

April put her tray down on the pile and said, "We are coming. We are coming. Do not get your pants tied up."

"Pants tied up?" Jérémie asked, never hearing the phrase.

"It's an American thing." Odd said, knowing the phrase, "She just translated it wrong."

"No, if you want to hear something that translated wrong, look at KFC's Finger Lickin' Good." April said.

"I heard about that." Ulrich said as they headed out of the cafeteria towards the dorms. "Didn't it come out in Japan?"

"Yes. Apparently the word for licking translated into eating or eat off." April said.

"So it was eat your fingers off?" Aélita asked.

April nodded her head.

"Ouch." Odd said, smiling as he opened the door.

The five started up the stairs when Jérémie asked, "Uhm, April? Wha-"

"I asked for her help." Aélita said, knowing Jérémie's question.

"You could ask us." Jérémie said.

"Uh, not when it comes to dresses, I am sure." April said, smiling.

"She's got you there, Einstein." Odd said, smiling.

Aélita, Jérémie, and April went on the second floor, leaving Odd and Ulrich to go up to their third floor.

-.-.-.-

"Man, I thought it was the girls who took the longest when it came to getting dressed." April said as the two waited in the court yard for the three guys.

Aélita pulled out her cell and looked at the clock. "They better hurry up. We've only got about thirty minutes to get there."

"You want to go up there and check on them?" April asked, eyeing a group that was passing as they stared at the two. Aélita dressed in a light pink dress that went down to her thighs and April dressed in a chines shirt and short shirt was a new sight around school unless it was a dance.

"Hey, you didn't wait too long, did you?" Odd asked.

"Speak of the devil." April said, picking up her Bible before getting up from the bench. "What took you three so long?"

"Jérémie couldn't tie his tie." Ulrich said, throwing his head back towards the boy.

"You look very handsome." Aélita said, commenting about the blond haired boys button up shirt and blue tie that went with his navy blue pants.

"Thanks." Jérémie said, looking down as his cheeks blushed. "You're very gorgeous too."

"Love birds." Ulrich said, shaking his head.

"You are one to talk." April said, pointing her finger into Ulrich's chest.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Ulrich asked, pushing away April's hand.

"Come on, Yumi'll be wondering what happened to us." Odd said as he turned to head towards the gate.

"Right behind you." April said, not wanting to answer Ulrich's question.

"Come on! What do you mean?" Ulrich asked, trying to stay right behind them, Aélita and Jérémie behind him.

"You telling him?" Odd asked.

"Nope." April said, smiling. "If he cannot figure it out and I have, than it is only a lose for him."

"Loss." Odd corrected.

"Thank you. Loss for him." April said.

-.-.-.-

"Hey, there you are." Yumi said, standing up from the steps to her house. "I was just about to call incase Xana attacked again."

"The guys had issues." Aélita said, pointing her thumb towards the three.

Yumi smiled, looking at Ulrich dressed up in a nice shirt and tie, very much like Jérémie's, just green.

Yumi walked out to the sidewalk and closed the gate behind her, showing her friends she was in the same dress Ulrich had taken from her room for Sissi to wear.

"I'm glad to finally see _you_ wearing that dress." Ulrich said, remembering that day.

"Thanks." Yumi said as they headed towards her church.

"What does he mean?" April asked.

"Oh, Xana took Yumi's DNA and made it so that she couldn't come back to earth and it was picture day." Odd explained. "We had to get Sissi to wear it."

"She actually did that for you?" April asked, surprised.

"Ya, I was sure there was alternative motives behind what she was doing, but we never found them." Odd said.

"Hey April, is your bible in English?" Aélita asked, getting so that she could look at the American.

"Ya, I do not know if I can read it, though. I mean, my friends are having to translate my e-mails right now because I am putting it all in French." April admitted.

"Can I see it?" Aélita asked.

"Sure." April handed it to her, not surprised.

"Hey, you see that steeple?" Yumi asked, pointing off in the distance.

April looked that way and saw the cross. "Yes. That is your church?"

Yumi nodded her head.


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter 24

"Well that was new." Odd said after they got back and had changed into more comfortable clothing. They were sitting in April's living room with her packing some things.

"I just was not expecting the real wine." April said.

"Any wonder why I didn't take it?" Jérémie asked.

"I am not asking." April said, not knowing.

"Jérémie used to have a drinking problem." Yumi explained for her friend.

"I have a few friends who have one right now." April said, sitting down some bowls onto the island. "And a few other them do not want to quit. That is why I don't go to parties."

"You sure you don't want any help?" Odd asked, watching her put everything onto the island.

"Actually, yes, could you get my computer and cord and bring it in here?" April asked.

"Sure." Odd said, getting up from the sofa.

"So what are you going to do once you get back home?" Ulrich asked.

April sat down the remaining of the containers and looked at Ulrich with a dead straight face and said, "I am going to break my own rules and have sex with Michael."

"What!?" Odd exclaimed from her room, as she got some strange looks from her friends.

"I am kidding!" April exclaimed. "I just wanted to see your faces."

"You had us going there for a second." Yumi said.

"But truly, I am going to hug all of my friends, tell my boyfriend about my ability, and hide from my mother's rath." April said. "I really cannot wait till I graduate. I can finally leave that place."

"I can't wait until I get to talk to your boyfriend though." Odd said as he walked in with her computer bag and a M&M container.

"Uh, I never asked for that." April said, walking around the island to Odd so she could take the container from him.

"I was just wondering what they tasted like, but it's empty." Odd said, shaking it.

"It has not had M&M's in it since Christmas." April said, taking it from him and putting it in the pocket of her guy's shorts.

"Then why do you have it?" Ulrich asked.

"You really do not want to know." April said, shaking her head. "Just think of the fact that I am an American."

"I don't want to know." Yumi said, thinking of something she could be using it for.

"Hey, I will be right back." April said, grabbing a bag of kitchen equipment. She closed her eyes as a green light encased her, taking her away from the room.

"I don't think I could ever get used to that." Odd said, shaking his head.

"Michael is going to have to." Jérémie said.

"I hope everything goes alright." Aélita said.

The green light reappeared and April grabbed some more.

"One good thing with that ability, all you really need on the plane is one bag and that's to make yourself look normal." Ulrich said as April packed the bag with the rest that belonged in the kitchen.

"It would also help me when I'm trying to get Kiwi to travel between here and home." Odd said.

"Where is that dog?" April asked.

"He's been asleep. Sometimes that dog acts like a cat more than a dog." Odd said.

"I know how that is. I have a cat that acts like a dog." April said. "Alright, one more time for the kitchen stuff and all I will have left is my room. Odd, do you want to pack anything for the trip there?"

"Ya, I've got to go upstairs for a few games." Odd said, remembering.

"So when is Odd going to get back to France?" Ulrich asked before April could teleport back to New Mexico as the door shut with Odd leaving to go upstairs.

"We should be getting there at around 8, so that would be..." April sat down her pile and looked down at her hands to count the time before saying, "Three in the morning. Shoot, I never realized what time Odd would be getting back. I will see if he still wants to go."

April's eyes went cross eyed, getting her friends to wonder what she was doing.

"Are you ok?" Aélita asked.

April held out a finger as if to say hold one minute before sneezing.

"Bless you." Yumi said, seeing the girl had to take a step backwards to keep her balance.

April stood straight, her hand covering her noise. "Uh, do you see a napkin somewhere around here?" April asked, not moving her hand.

"Uh, here." Jérémie said, taking one off of the side table and standing up to hand it to April.

"Thanks." April said, walking back into the kitchen so that she could wipe her noise behind the fridge.

"Are you ok?" Ulrich asked.

"Oh, it is nothing." April said, coming out from behind the fridge. "Your European flowers just do not like my noise."

"Oh, you have pollen issues?" Yumi asked.

"Ya, I just thought pollen was part of the shot stuff." April said. "Maybe not."

"Shoot. It's almost one already." Ulrich said, glancing at his cell phone.

"You kidding me." April said, looking up at Ulrich. "I have got to hurry up. I was planning on taking a shower before."

April grabbed the pile she had just sat down and disappeared from site.

She came back a second latter, standing in the hallway, heading towards the room.

"You need any help?" Aélita asked, standing up and walking over towards April's room.

"No, I have almost got it." April said, holding a suit case in one hand as she hurried back into the living room. She leaned the case against one of the chairs and went back into her room.

Aélita looked into the room and saw that most of her stuff had already been sent back, only leaving a cell phone charger, a towel, some soaps, and a pillow.

April grabbed the pillow and phone charger and disappeared, taking them back to New Mexico.

April reappeared in the living room, looking around to see if she missed anything.

"I'll go and see if Odd still wants to go, since he'll be getting back at three in the morning." Ulrich said, standing up.

"Ya, thanks." April said, finally sure that she got everything. "I am getting a shower and will be right out there soon."

"Alright." Jérémie said, standing up as well. "See you."

"See ya." April said, going into her room and grabbing her stuff for a shower as her friends left the apartment.

-.-.-.-

"Thank you all for coming to see me off." April said, hugging Aélita as she found herself fighting off tears. She pulled herself away from the girl and turned to the rest of the Lyoko Warriors.

"Of course, you're one of us now." Ulrich smiled, putting his hands in his pockets.

"I'll give you this though, I never thought any of this past week would've happened." Jérémie admitted.

"No one would've thought it." Odd added.

"Flight 263 now boarding." A woman's voice droned over the intercom.

April looked up, realizing her flight was that one. A sigh left her and she smiled at the group. "The fight continues though. We'll keep in touch and hopefully we'll be able to get up with the Japanese branch of all this as well."

"Working on it." Yumi reminded.

April grabbed her suitcase, glad it was small enough to be carry on, and said, "Hey, if you need me, I'll pop back here."

"See you all tomorrow morning." Odd said, pulling April along so she didn't miss her flight.

"We'll cover for you." Ulrich called.

The four watched their new friend get pushed along by Odd, knowing their fight against Xana now has a little more help from the Xanadu Defenders.

The End

AN: Just to let you all know, I started this story back in September 2010, the summer after a French exchange student stayed with friends of mine. He was the first person I spoke French to and he understood me ^^ I just finished it today (December 2015 since this won't get posted till sometime 2016) and in Word (where I write these mostly, either this or paper to word) it came up to 101 pages at a size 12 font. Longest. Story. Ever.


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